Pneumonia (album)

Recording and release

By early 1999, Whiskeytown band members Ryan Adams, Caitlin Cary, and Mike Daly had started recording their follow-up to Strangers Almanac at an abandoned church in Woodstock, New York, called Dreamland Studios. Ethan Johns, son of legendary producer Glyn Johns, was tapped to produce the album. Originally planned to be a double-album entitled Happy Go Bye Bye, the music recorded was intended to be a departure from the band's previous alt-country sound, prominently featuring Adams on piano, with classic pop arrangements featuring strings and horns. Notably, Mike Daly co-wrote seven songs on the album with Adams; Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha contributed guitar and co-wrote a song; ex-Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson added guitar and dobro; and producer Johns played several instruments. Adams envisioned this collective effort to be in the vein of "those Woodstock albums, like The Band made in the '60s."

After recording, the album was mixed by Outpost Recordings house producer Scott Litt, best known for his work with R.E.M. But the band was unhappy with Litt's mix, so when the album was finally prepped for release by Lost Highway Records nearly two years later, Adams and Ethan Johns remixed it. Adams and Johns sought a classic Rolling Stones/Beatles sound with their mix, with little to no compression, and trimmed the album to 14 songs. (Johns also produced Adams' first two solo albums, Heartbreaker and Gold.)

Break up

During the merger between Polygram and Universal, which ultimately put the album's release in limbo, the band decided to call it quits. Said Adams at the time: "The decision was made for us, really, just by time and circumstance, and I respect things that happen like that. By the time we went to make Pneumonia, there were only three surviving members. Everybody kind of pooled thoughts together for that album, and when it didn't come out, it was kind of like we reached an end that's inevitable, and we all knew it in the back of our minds."

In a 2001 interview with Magnet magazine, Mike Daly was even more candid: “If Pneumonia had come out when it was supposed to back in 1999, there would probably still be a Whiskeytown today.” Caitlin Cary agreed to a certain extent: “I suppose it’s possible that we might still be together, but Whiskeytown seemed to have something of a half-life. We never really worked very hard. We toured hard, but the way you make it in this industry is, besides being talented and driven, you have to play the game. Kiss a lot of ass along the way. And Ryan was never very good at any of that stuff.”

In 2001, Lost Highway Records announced it would release a five-song EP of Pneumonia outtakes entitled Deserters, but those plans were eventually scrapped. One leftover song from the sessions ("Choked Up") did, however, see the light of day on the 2003 Lost Highway rarities collection Lost & Found, Vol. 1.

Track listing

All tracks written by Ryan Adams unless otherwise stated.

Musicians

Production credits