Caitlin Cary life and biography

Caitlin Cary is an alt-country musician.

Caitlin Cary grew up in the small town of Seville, Ohio, with dreams of becoming a writer or maybe a veterinarian. Music, however, played a major role in the Cary household. Her parents share a love of singing, and her dad even built instruments. All of her six older brothers are musically inclined, with her brother Peter being one of her early musical inspirations. As a young child, Cary actually wrote songs that she "performed" on her dad's homemade harpsichord. When she was around 6, she started studying the violin, which she played for a decade.

Her creative spirit was also fostered early on at the "weird hippie school" her parents sent her to. When Cary eventually entered the local public schools, however, she had a hard time fitting in. For her sophomore year of high school, she attempted to become one of the popular students. She put away her violin and tried out for cheerleading -- she didn't make the squad. Going to the College of Wooster in Ohio allowed her to "figure out that I was, in fact, a freak and revel in it."

During college, she picked up the violin again while playing in her first band, which played jokey covers of country songs. After graduation, she dabbled in music while living in Houston and Richmond, Va. She followed her writing muse, entering North Carolina State's graduate program in creative writing. It was while in Raleigh, N.C., that Cary's life-plan was inexorably altered. A young rock musician named Ryan Adams was starting a band and looking for a violin player. A mutual acquaintance mentioned Cary. "I got a call just out of the blue, and it was Ryan saying 'I'm doing this band. We love Uncle Tupelo and we're practicing tomorrow, can you come over?'" Cary, who had only a passing familiarity with Uncle Tupelo, decided to check it out. For the next several years, Cary served as the serene presence next to Adams' rambunctious antics.

When Adams departed Whiskeytown, Cary worked on her first solo album, 2002's While You Weren't Looking. In time, Cary got a note on her fan mail Web site from Mary Chapin Carpenter stating that she liked While You Weren't Looking so much that she bought 20 copies to give to friends. Cary and Carpenter subsequently struck up a friendship, and when Cary performed in Charlottesville, Va., the two sang together on "Pony," Carpenter's favorite tune off the disc. Cary opened several of Carpenter's summer dates and also warmed up the crowd for portions of Lyle Lovett's tour.

In 2003, Cary released the album I'm Staying Out. She lives in Raleigh with her husband (and former Whiskeytown drummer) Skillet Gilmore and their two dogs.

Albums with Whiskeytown

* Faithless Street (1995)
* Strangers Almanac (1997)
* Pneumonia (2001)

Solo albums

* While You Weren't Looking (2002)
* I'm Staying Out (2003)
* Sweetwater (2004) (as Tres Chicas with Tonya Lamm & Lynn Blakey)
* Begonias (2005; with Thad Cockrell)
* Bloom, Red & the Ordinary Girl (2006; as Tres Chicas)

Read more