While You Weren& 39 T Looking Cd

Caitlin Caryis no longer content to sit second chair, and based on the strength of her latest release, While You Weren't Looking, there's no reason she should be. During Whiskeytown's dazzling, yet turbulent run, Caitlin Cary's pure harmonies and accomplished fiddle playing lent a calming presence to the mercurial frontman Ryan Adams.

She was often described as the Emmylou Harris to Adams' latter day Gram Parsons. And in contrast to the revolving door of the other musicians who joined and left the band over the five years they were together, Cary and Adams found themselves the only survivors of Whiskeytown's original line up when the band called it quits in 2000.

And like Harris, Cary isn't content to be trapped inside genres as she blossoms as a successful solo artist. Weaving together touches of country, rock, pop and folk (from both sides of the Atlantic), While You Weren't Lookingcreates a seductive musical experience, beckoning the listener like a siren song with the opening track, Shallow Heart, Shallow Water, and holding the spell until the final note of the recording.

Cary's alluring alto spins its charms whether at work on the haunting ballad Fireworks, the twangy rocker Thick Walls Down or the soulful Too Many Keys. A remarkably self-assured disc, While You Were Lookingproves that Adams wasn't the only gifted musician to walk away from the Whiskeytown experience.