"Yesterday's News" is a song by alternative country band Whiskeytown, co-written by Ryan Adams and Phil Wandscher. It first appeared on Whiskeytown's Strangers Almanac album, and was released in 1998 as a CD single.^[1]

An earlier version of the song - recorded during the band's "Baseball Park" sessions - was released on the 1998 reissue of the band's first album Faithless Street.^[2] Ryan Adams calls this "the definitive version. It sounds younger and freer than the one on Strangers Almanac, a little bit faster and louder. That was our Big Star phase. I played through a Vox amp at [producer] Chris Stamey’s request. Phil put a space-echo on the solo, and he talks underneath me in the choruses. The singing is better on the original... I had just written the song when we recorded it with Chris [Stamey] for the Baseball Park Sessions. The person it was about was still fresh in my mind."^[3]

The lyrics of the song mention "The Comet", i.e., The Comet Lounge, a favorite Raleigh, NC, hangout for the band. The bar has since closed.^[4]

Track listing

Personnel & Production Credits

• Ryan Adams — acoustic & electric guitars, singing, banjo, piano, percussion
• Phil Wandscher — electric guitar, singing, organ, percussion
• Caitlin Cary — violin, singing
• Steven Terry — drums, singing, percussion
• Jeff Rice — bass guitar
• Produced, engineered, and mixed by Jim Scott

References