1996-02-02 | Ryan Adams

46:00

Taper:

mrpember

Transferrer:

mrpember

SHNID:

radams1996-02-02.freightwhaler.fob-csb.mrpember.flac16

Source:

CSB mics (battery box, low-end roll-off) clipped on glasses > Denon DTR-80P (DAT, 16/48)

Lineage:

Master DAT > Tascam DA-20 > M-Audio Audiophile USB > PC > Wavelab 5.0 > iZotope RX7 (de-clicked, minor edits, light EQ, normalizing) > CD Wave Editor (tracking) > FLAC (level 8)

Taper Notes:

View NotesRyan Adams - acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vox
Sloane Doggett - guitar
Eric "Skillet" Gilmore - drums
Chris Laney - bass
Nicholas Petti - pedal steel guitar  

Source: CSB mics (battery box, low-end roll-off) clipped on glasses > Denon DTR-80P (DAT, 16/48)
Transfer: Master DAT > Tascam DA-20 > M-Audio Audiophile USB > PC > Wavelab 5.0 > iZotope RX7 (de-clicked, minor edits, light EQ, normalizing) > CD Wave Editor (tracking) > FLAC (level 8)
taped and transferred by mrpember
This is a 16/48 recording
[song titles are from archive.org, I can't verify the titles]

Freightwhaler was a short-lived side project for Ryan Adams and some friends from North Carolina and Georgia. They played at most 4 or 5 shows, all in early 1996. Skillet and Nicholas were in Whiskeytown at the time, Sloane and Chris were in Ithica Gin (at least I think Chris was in that band). Ryan was writing a lot of songs back then, Whiskeytown fans will know "Bar Lights" (I believe this is the live debut of that song) but I think the others were unique to this brief period.
The recording is pretty good, they started earlier than I thought so at the beginning you can hear me mounting the mics on my glasses and walking closer to the stage. This show has made the rounds and is available on archive.org (listed as a Ryan Adams show) but is the first time this has been shared directly from my DAT master. I spent some time trying to clean up a number of issues, especially at the beginning.
The Honky Tonk-A-Rama was an annual roots-rock festival at Local 506 intended to highlight countryish bands from North Carolina. The first one in 1996 was notable because a rare ice storm hit over the weekend which made travel extremely treacherous, many musicians and most of the people with tickets didn't make it which made for a very unique and cool vibe for the hardcore folks in the building on those two nights.
Honky Tonk-A-Rama lineup:

Friday, February 2, 1996 (from start to finish):  the Tremblers;  Freightwhaler;  Zen Frisbee;  Tweaker;  the Backsliders

Saturday, February 3, 1996 (from start to finish):  Two Dollar Pistols;  Trailer Bride;  Pine State;  Jolene;  Old 97's;  Chicken Wire Gang

mrpember, April 2021

vanillag NOTES (1/4/2022):  
--HUGE thanks to mrpember for recording & sharing this beauty from his master & reworking it!!  
--did some more research on this, confirmed date & song titles, players, etc. & added some more detail to the info
--There seems to be no real consensus on whether this band's name was spelled 'Freightwhaler' or 'Freight Whaler'...even the wikipedia page for their unreleased album splits the difference, listing the album as "The Freightwhaler Sessions" & the band as "Freight Whaler' & also 'Freightwhaler (Freight Whaler)'.  So, I guess it doesn't really matter, but I'm gonna defer to mrpember's expertise here & stick with 'Freightwhaler'.  
--https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Freightwhaler_Sessions
--added the ffp fingerprints to the text file
--added pictures of the venue
--https://indyweek.com/music/features/remembering-alt.country-s-big-1996-showcase/
--https://www.nodepression.com/honky-tonk-a-rama-local-506-chapel-hill-nc/