William Elliott Whitmore
Song of the Blackbird CD/LP
"This is American folk music stripped to its basics but freed of any stultifying reverence. Whitmore writes original songs which sound timeless in a voice which doesn't fit his comparitive youth." - WIRE
William Elliott Whitmore hails from an Iowa horse farm along the banks of the Mississippi River, and his intense love and spiritual understanding of the land is flawlessly conveyed on his albums for Southern Records; a trilogy of albums collecting songs overflowing with mortality, sorrowful joy and attempts to make peace with a conflicted sense of morality.
William's voice sounds decades older than his tattered birth certificate indicates, burnished by smoke and drink and full of emotional depth. While comparisons to the gravelly voice of Tom Waits and the lyrical story telling of Johnny Cash are prevalent (and not altogether inaccurate), Mr. Whitmore is clearly doing more than just regenerating the music of the past.
Dark tales of life, love, lonliness and loss are the cornerstones for his albums. These universal themes of desperation and redemption served Charley Patton, Robert Johnson and Henry Rollins well... and Whitmore has perfected his own unique strain of the rural folk blues with this impressive catalgoue.
