August 2, 2005
The Holy Grail Found on Amazon.com!
Posted by Larry Karnowski at August 2, 2005 7:00 AMSo, it's been widely held that the first Whiskeytown EP, Rural Free Delivery, was in fact an urban legend and never really existed outside of Ryan Adams' feverish and ADD-riddled, genius brain. There are no copies anywhere. Yeah, sure, they say they can get em for you on eBay and Amazon.com's auction sites... but for $60-$80 a pop? What are they smoking? This EP can't be THAT good. I mean, it came BEFORE Faithless Street, which... still a great album, isn't worth $60.
(Okay, maybe it is... but I'm a fanatic.)
I mean, Faithless Street is great, but it's got some rough edges. (No offense Chris Stamey, I still worship you as a minor deity.) I was afraid all this time that Rural Free Delivery would be a really rough, choppy, immature effort put out by a bunch of kids. I mean, Ryan was only, what -- 19, 20? So I've never been motivated to drop the average of $60 to get a copy off an auction site anywhere... afraid it would suck. Terrified it would suck.
But a little bit ago, a dear friend who shall remain nameless was scouring the seedier side of the web. Now it's common knowledge we don't promote file-sharing on this website. HickoryWind.org readers are encouraged to BUY music to support our beloved artists, and they know it. But sometimes, sometimes something like RFD is just too tempting. So my friend goes out and finds the songs on the Internet, and he burns me a copy... and they're GREAT! It's an amazing Whiskeytown album! It's very rockin', high-energy, and tough. It's got a punk sensibility, but Ryan's voice is already great, and his song-writing is already there. It sounds, in a lot of ways, more mature and steady than Faithless Street, something that really shocked me.
So I did it. I splurged. It is, after all, my very own personal Holy Grail and has been for years. I got lucky on the price and dropped the $40 to get a used copy off of Amazon.com's auction site. It's in perfect condition, opened yes, but it looks like it was just bought. And the music sounds so much better than those awful ripped copies off the Internet.
So, see, boys and girls? All good things come to those who wait, and you get what you pay for. And yes, sometimes you have to pay $40 to prove that you are a sick, sick fan-boy.
I probably shouldn't tell you this, but I will anyway: I found this disc in a used CD store (though I can't remember which one) for $8.99. But I know what it's like to wait and wait for the right price to come along. I watched for a copy for John Hiatt's out-of-print "Overcoats" for months, and finally decided $20 was a good price to pay. A couple of months after buying it, I found one for $5.99.
Posted by: sean at August 2, 2005 8:17 AMOuch...who didn't see that coming ;~)
Posted by: Waylon at August 2, 2005 9:12 AMYeah, I know, I know. But I consider buying stuff like this the same as buying computer gear. Just put the money down now... there's no sense in waiting for a better deal. Will you get a better deal somewhere else? Maybe, but you never know. If you've got the money, and you think the item is worth the price now -- put the money down and don't look back.
Besides, I feel that I'd already gotten lucky once with a used Whiskeytown "In Your Wildest Dreams" EP for $5, which is just as elusive as RFD. I really doubted I'd get that lucky again, especially here in the Whiskeytown hotzone -- Raleigh. I figured I'd better pony up this time.
Posted by: larry at August 2, 2005 9:27 AMIt's a good deal if you think you got a good price. Under the circumstances, I'd say you did.
Posted by: sean at August 2, 2005 10:33 AMYeah, I'm just playing around. I just dropped $130 to see John Mayer's new blues trio. I'll tell you one thing, if he busts into "Your Body is a Wonderland" I'll be waiting by his bus to turn his face into a mountain range. Everyone who hasn't seen him play blues is like, "you're going to see who???" Well, I have some bootleg CD's and he is on my EC Crossroads DVD, and he may be SRV reincarnated...don't shoot me Sean, only time will tell for sure.
Posted by: Waylon at August 2, 2005 3:55 PMYou'd have a hard time selling me on SRV reincarnated, but I've heard him play the blues, and he's for real. I'm with you on that.
Posted by: sean at August 2, 2005 4:16 PMMan, I saw John Mayer on Austin City Limits doing nearly an entire blues set w/ Buddy Guy and Double Trouble. I was completely floored by his blues chops. It truly sickens me to then go listen to that crap they release on his albums. Just another in a long line of examples where the biz squanders talent in favor of pop sales...(deep breath)...but I'm not bitter.
Posted by: James at August 3, 2005 9:05 AMI'm with James. I was upstairs one night when the husband was watching Austin City Limits, and I came down because I could hear some amazing blues going on. I about dropped dead from shock when I realized it was frickin' Mayer with Double Trouble and Buddy Guy. Between that and Mayer's column for Esquire and his skit on "Chappelle's Show", I'm a big fan now -- a big fan praying he'll put out a BLUES album. I kinda feel like he's hiding his true talent.
Posted by: Sharon at August 4, 2005 12:24 PMWell Sharon, you may be getting your prayers answered because he is touring with a new band called the John Mayer Trio (JM3) and they are SUPPOSED to be putting out a blues album soon...I sure hope so. I'm going to see them in September and I'll put a little blurb for anyone that is interested in how it goes.
Posted by: Waylon at August 4, 2005 12:38 PM
