Caitlin Cary

Caitlin Cary’s second CD demonstrates how underused she was in Whiskeytown. Granted, shades of that crunchy guitar/fiddle/pedal-steel aesthetic show up in “Thick Walls Down,” “I Ain’t Found Nobody Yet,” “Hold On to Me” and “Don’t Hurry Your Heart.” But Sandy Denny and Linda Thompson are the musical precedents for Cary’s best songs. The extraordinary “Sorry,” “My Pony,” “Too Many Keys” and “The Fair” showcase her wistful, spare vocals, her poet’s sense of metaphor and feel for memorable melody. “The Fair” is the best song Richard Thompson never wrote or performed, and “Sorry” (with a good harmony vocal from Ryan Adams) breaks your heart through its merging of melody with the metaphor of an oak and pear tree intertwined. As the title suggests, while the world focused on Adams, Cary also was a major talent in Whiskeytown, patiently waiting to present her pop sensibilities and songs to the world.