I suppse one could call the musical creations of William Elliot Whitmore, the 29 year old who hails from Iowa’s Mississippi banks, blues. I guess one could call it bluegrass, not in the traditional sense, but in the shared-roots and shared philosophy sense. One would not be in error to make either of these claims, yet it would also be misleading to anyone of the current generation, as you and I surely are. You see, his musical creations, for this author, are decidedly of the muses of a time more than a century behind us. In 2009 Whitmore released “Animals In The Dark,” his 5th full length album, a work in which he does not wish to challenge his formula for musical creation. Whitmore is young, and he is white, yet remarkably neither of these factors seem to be portrayed in his voice; a voice which is undoubtedly the central axis of his each and every song. He voice poses a pleasant quasi-aged, seasoned hoarseness; yet is as well a seemingly trained and tuned sound that communicates a sense of experience and understanding that truly belies his age. Whitmore is aware of the uniqueness of his voice and it is the central instrument of this album (and those prior), indeed there are rarely drum lines and even when there is one gets the sense that his voice is really what is keeping time.
Part of the uniqueness also has to do with the pre-stated sense of this music being of another time. Usually there are two instruments played one each track, sometimes three if you include a foot tap. There is a obvious lack of electronic sounds, save the ending of “There’s Hope For You” which has an overdriven guitar that almost sounds Kazu like. Yet I believe this is part of what William is trying to do, take us back to a different era of blues/country/folk (or whatever you would like to define it as). Whether these songs were played by a trio of musicians upon soapboxes at a moonshine-fueled summer country gathering in the late 19th century, or on a festival stage with today’s modern sound equipment; little would sound different save the overall volume.
William introduces his tuneful time-warp directly, in the first track “Mutiny”, which employs a civil war’ish or New Orleans’ drum line approach to percussion combined solely with his own voice and uplifting chorus responses. This track really sets the stage and shows off the raspy, emotional voice that is the center of the Whitmore experience. But his musical talents are not confined to his voice, he can indeed compose well and communicate emotion with ease. This is shown in his second track, “Who Stole The Soul”, a beautiful medley of acoustic guitar, fiddle and human voice. In this track Whitmore sings to us in a kind of reflective dissonance that reminded me of Lyle Lovett with more gusto and pain. Whitmore is at his best when he trys to be a slightly different from his tried and true voice+acoustic guitar combination. Such as with “Lifetime Underground” a nice bluegrass like track that uses not only excellent steel guitar and fiddle, but storytelling as well. Yet at times Whitmore does become slightly redundant on some tracks, relying too much on the sound of his voice and not enough of the progression of his guitar, yet this author hesitates to say this with too much assertion as I am not accustomed to music that is truly of another time’s inspiration. This trait shown in his track “Johnny Law” and which starts off with an upbeat steel guitar and consistent toe tap, but always finds me moving onto the next song before its completion as it becomes static and redundant to my ear. The same is true for me and the closing track, “A Good Day To Die”, in which the guitar is overly soft and the title of the song repeated too often and always in the same manner.
He might be aware of this aspect of his music being a setback with many of those listening so he aptly does not do employ this philosophy on every track. He keenly keeps his acoustic song “Hell Or High Water” short and more to the point, never allowing it to go on too far. On “Old Devils”, which might be his closest thing to a single, he definitely presents a good showcase of the dynamic center of his music, his voice. Yet he decides to slowly increase the speed of the song and even add in some toe tapping (yet still quiet) percussion, which greatly assists to keep one ear’s intrigued.
All in all if you are into retro-blues, bluegrass, folk or alt-country William Elliot Whitmore should be on your short list of artists to check out. If not, he is still worthy of your attention, I just bet that many people will not understand or care to try to like his music. But what I do believe many people will find is that this music works perfectly well for calm background music, maybe at a BBQ or a backyard dinner, behind some friendly discussion or relaxation with a glass of wine. I doubt many of the general population, or audiophile population for that matter, would enjoy putting this album on and doing nothing but just listening. Yet when I put on this album, Animals In The Dark, I cannot help but imagine like I am in the heartland of America in the 19th century, maybe returning from participation in America’s necessary yet cannibalistic war, maybe reading some newly published Twain or Dickens on a levee overlooking the Mississippi slowly slither by. So if you are game for some music-induced time travel, do yourself a favor and check out William Elliot Whitmore’s album Animals In The Dark.
Written By Sean Poynton Brna
