southern records

William Elliott Whitmore - Song of the Blackbird - "The Chariot" (3:17) >> mp3 AAC

"The Chariot" is a new type of song for William Elliott Whitmore, of course it has his soaring vocal and dogged strum, but here we get some defiant drums and an uber-bluesy babbling organ to accompany him, the effect is magic, setting his voice on fire. "The Chariot swung low and sweet, but could not carry me home" croons William when the song breaks into the chorus - it's a song of heartbreak and relief - one of the strongest songs he has written, and now free for you to listen to - result!

Music has healing power. There is so much resonance in this statement for William Elliott Whitmore and you can hear it in every banjo pluck, acoustic guitar strum and piano note on SONG OF THE BLACKBIRD . William explains, "I have been building a cabin all summer and my room is next to a Sycamore tree, where a bunch of blackbirds live. Every morning I wake up to the song, and it's not a pretty song, but it's the song of this record." This is his third album in a trilogy series released on Southern Records.

There is a continuing story that threads through each of his albums. William, now 27, dealt with the death of his parents as a late teen. To cope with the hurt, he channeled his emotion into the creation of his first Southern release, HYMNS FOR THE HOPELESS . These harrowing tales of loss and wounds continued on through ASHES TO DUST, his second album. "To me, ASHES TO DUST is like burning a pasture in order for new grass to grow," William reflects. Powerful forces in nature have been revisited in each album's theme; "HYMNS (FOR THE HOPELESS) is about earth, ASHES (TO DUST) is about fire, and (SONG OF THE) BLACKBIRD is about air and water."

As the tale continues, William has chosen sculptures made by his cousin Luke Tweedy, for cover art to reflect the each album's theme. The first and second albums, which speak of death, both featured skulls with dried roses. SONG OF THE BLACKBIRD features the skeleton of a bird with wings spread, meant to represent it taking off. "This album is how we move on, how we ascend in our lives to look forward," according to William.

More specifically, the album is a cycle. From the opening bars in "Dry" to "And Then The Rains Came, the story starts in the middle of a drought. Then a storm comes and floods the land halfway through the album. William got the idea for this storyline from the "Lee County Flood" of 1993 and a summer-long drought that plagued the Midwest last year. After being deluged with the rain for which they had been hoping, the farmers find themselves right back where they started as the record closes. William adds, "A farmer's year is a cycle of growth and harvest. The crops and the ground must heal after the harsh rain."

William Elliott Whitmore's new album Song Of The Blackbird is released on August 28th on Southern.