Faithless Street is the debut studio album by alternative country band Whiskeytown, released in 1995 on Mood Food Records. The album was re-issued by Outpost Recordings in 1998 with several bonus tracks added, and the track "Oklahoma" omitted. Pitchfork Media has called the album "an alt-country touchstone". Recording In July 1995, Whiskeytown convened at the Funny Farm in Apex, North Carolina, with Greg Woods and began tracking their debut album. According to the band's principal singer-songwriter Ryan Adams, the band worked very fast and recorded the album in a week and a half. At least one song ("Hard Luck Story") was written in the studio and laid to tape just minutes later. As guitarist Phil Wandscher noted: "Oh yeah, it was always, how much can you do in this little time? It’s all basically live recording, and then it’s like, 'Overdubs? We don’t have time to overdub, man!' And a lot of times, that worked out better, because you don’t have time to mill around and think about it and then fuck stuff up." Wandscher would be the de facto producer of the sessions, although he's not specifically listed as such in the album credits. Despite the intensity of the sessions, the band still found time to goof off. Violinist Caitlin Cary remembers getting drunk and riding a horse bareback across a nearby field, while other band members played around with firecrackers - which inspired Adams to later remark: "Out in the parking lot across the street... the Roman candles and Black Cats sounded a lot like I'd hope we'd one day sound - pretty little things all set on fire waiting to get destroyed." Whiskeytown moves to a major label Following the release of Faithless Street, the band was the subject of a record label bidding war, which came to a head at Whiskeytown's appearance at the 1996 SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas. In what Adams later called a "turning point" for the band, Whiskeytown played to a packed Austin club where even festival badge holders were turned away at the door. During the band's (reportedly sloppy) set, Adams noticed record label representatives in the crowd. But when he tried to avoid the label reps by retreating to the band's van after the show, they simply followed him there and surrounded the van - some even placing their business cards on the windshield. At almost every show after