Strangers Almanac - Strangers Almanac Tour (1997-98)

Strangers Almanac Tour (1997-98)

In a 2008 interview with Independent Weekly, Adams admitted that the Strangers sessions were a very unhappy time for him personally. Depression, substance abuse, and a general dissatisfaction with the band plagued his time in Nashville. In spite of this, Whiskeytown embarked on a grueling and turbulent tour that stretched out over the next 19 months. The band first appeared as part of the "No Depression Tour" with fellow alt-country acts Old 97's, Hazeldine, and The Picketts in the Spring of 1997.

After Strangers Almanac was released on July 29th, another round of touring ensued. This leg of the tour, dubbed the "RV Tour", found the band traveling between gigs in an RV. On the whiskeytownavenues message board, tour manager Tom O'Keefe called the tour "a 2-month trek in the US that still causes mental illness in those that were there." One particular show at the Iota Club in Arlington, VA, found guitarist Phil Wandscher sitting above the stage for the entire performance, playing his guitar and occasionally throwing beer bottles down at singer Ryan Adams. At another show in Lansing, MI, a fan threw tomatoes at the band's crew following an abbreviated set by the band.

On September 10th, the band recorded a live in-studio performance for the KCRW radio program "Brave New World", which was later released on the 2008 deluxe edition of Strangers.

Following a contentious September 25th show at The Hurricane in Kansas City, the band splintered. Ryan Adams and Caitlin Cary played the remaining dates of the tour as an acoustic duo. Wandscher, an original member of the band, would never play or record with Whiskeytown again.

(Ironically, Wandscher's work on the Strangers Almanac album would later secure a record deal for his next band - thanks to a recommendation by Death Cab for Cutie's Chris Walla, who's a big fan of the album.)

Less than a month later, Whiskeytown had a new touring lineup and hit the road again. Joining Adams and Cary were ex-Firehose guitarist Ed Crawford, bassist Jenni Snyder, multi-instrumentalist Mike Daly, and the band's original drummer Skillet Gilmore. In January 1998, this lineup taped a live performance for Austin City Limits. They also performed on a number of radio programs, including Mountain Stage, Acoustic Cafe, Modern Rock Live, and KMTT's Music Lounge.

In late April, the band embarked on their very first European tour, but without Crawford or Snyder. The Strangers tour continued in June as the band opened for John Fogerty, again with a new lineup of sidemen for Adams and Cary, including Brad Rice and Danny Kurtz from The Backsliders.

Whiskeytown's ever-evolving lineup would prompt the band to poke fun at itself by selling t-shirts at shows that read: "I Played In Whiskeytown And All I Got Was This Lousy Goddamn T-Shirt!"

In September, having now been on the road since March of the previous year, the band played yet another scandalous show - this time at the historic Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco. At the end of the show, after experiencing sound problems, a lukewarm crowd, and being told he couldn't smoke on stage, an upset Adams smashed his mic stand and tossed the monitors off the stage. He then got into an altercation with the venue's security, and was finally dragged away by band member Daly.

By the final show of the tour in October 1998, the band was playing almost an entire set of brand-new, unreleased music, with barely any songs from Strangers Almanac - the very album which had launched the tour nearly two years before.

It would prove to be Whiskeytown's final tour to date.