Cult singer/songwriter James Jackson Toth cut his teeth as the leader of New York-based avant-garde/freak folk ensemble Wooden Wand & the Vanishing Voice and their myriad incarnations. The Memphis-based artist, along with his wife, Jex Toth, have put out numerous collections of eclectic psychedelic folk-rock under an even more diverse set of names, many pressed onto CD-Rs and sold at shows in extremely limited quantities. For his first "official" solo album, Toth looked to producer Steve Fisk (Nirvana, Soul Coughing, Soundgarden) and a small army of San Francisco-based musicians from the likes of Deerhoof, Vetiver, and Geraldine Fibbers to craft a nuanced, decidedly straightforward collection of songs echoing everybody from Richard Hawley and Chris Isaak to Jason Molina and Bob Dylan. Waiting in Vain arrived in summer 2008 on the Rykodisc label.