Whiskeytown “16 Days” (Acoustic)

Do you have a favorite album, that you’ve listened to so often, it doesn’t really surprise you anymore? And you wish, somehow, it had a new song on it? One that was recorded in the style and spirit of the album, but you’d never heard before?

Ryan Adams is one of those guys who can do all sorts of things. His tastes and talents run from folk, to Americana, to punk rock, to Dead-inspired grooves to straight-up Rock And Roll. Some fans will follow him, no matter what he does. And some just pine for the sound he created when they first discovered him.

I heard Ryan Adams around 2000, as his first major label band, Whiskeytown, was winding down with the album “Strangers Almanac,” and he had just recorded a stunning solo debut, Heartbreaker, with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.

Whiskeytown certainly never had a hit, but one of their most memorable tunes, and a fan favorite, was “16 Days.” A tremendous song, no doubt. But I was blown away by the version that came out last year, as a bonus part of the “Strangers Almanac” Deluxe Edition.

Recorded in a style similar to the songs on “Heartbreaker”---stark and acoustic, emotionally raw---it reminds me why I loved Ryan Adams so much when I first heard him. Like discovering a new song on an old favorite album.

Hear a sample of Whiskeytown “16 Days”

See the band perform it in 1997, here

Buy the album, here