While working at the computer last week, I was streaming the excellent college radio station here in Rogers Park (Chicago), WLUW (the Loyola University station), and the dj played a track called "Song of the Blackbird" by William Elliot Whitmore. After identifying the track, he mentioned that Whitmore would be playing Friday night at the Cabaret Metro (locally referred to as the Metro), here in Chicago. He offered tickets for callers, and on a whim I called and got on the list.
It's not often that I would be compelled to see a performer based on a three minute sampling of his work, but there was much in those three minutes that told me he would be worth hearing further. I love delta and acoustic folk-blues. And since many of the great ones, such as Rev. Gary Davis, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee and Dave Van Ronk, to name a few, have long since passed, there haven't been many contemporary artists to carry the mantle.
Even one of the more talented members of this shrinking community, Chris Whitley, died within recent years. He showed great promise with his debut album, seemed to be scared off by the critical acclaim and radio attention and then veered off into increasingly edgy terrain only to disappear into relative obscurity by the time he died. I had an opportunity to see him in the late 90s and he looked scary -- rail thin and heavily tatooed under a thin white tank-top t-shirt, I think he could have even spooked the legendary blues guitarist and recovered heroin-addict himself, Johnny Winter. His appearance that night seemed to foreshadow a typical blues title like: "I'm Not Long for this World."
William Elliot Whitmore took the stage at the Metro on Friday night, the opening set of a three artist bill (Rocky Vololato and Lucero were subsequent acts). With just a banjo, a heavy, yet steady foot stomping to serve as his rhythm section and a loose and familiar demeanor with the audience, Whitmore provided an engaging and memorable set that seems to indicate he is a performer with a bright future ahead of him. His style does harken back to the hoot n' holler type of blues that typified the delta blues artists such as Sonny and Brownie, Charlie Patton or even Elmore James. But there are hints of Jimmie Rogers and even contempary singer-songwriters, such as fellow Iowan Greg Brown, one of the most influential songwriters currently on the scene. It seems that Whitmore has been formed of the same clay as Brown in that these songs of anguish and loss are strongly rooted in a nearly spiritual (I would almost say evangelical) underpinning. Some of the songs from his current album, Song of the Blackbird, wouldn't have been out of place on timeless recordings such as The Band's, Music from Big Pink or the eponymous debut of Jesse Winchester (which featured both Levon Helm and Robbie Robertson of The Band), and are not dissimilar to the type of songs Bob Dylan is writing these days.
While the songs did have that old-timey feel of a revival meeting, I would offer that my only criticism is that he needs to musically stretch a little more. By the end of his forty-five minute set these evocative pieces started to yield a sameness in tone and the familiar chord progressions seemed to mimic other classics from this bygone era. Still, there is much to be mined in the future for Whitmore and I think he will be a major artist, maybe not through sales or radio play, but in terms of a name that will immediately prompt respect and recognition. I was thinking that, with a few albums under his belt, William Elliot Whitmore would be the perfect type of performer that Dylan would want on the bill with him. That would make for a memorable evening...
The photograph is not from the Friday night performance (notice he is playing a guitar and not a banjo) and comes courtesy of the Southern Records website --www.southern.net -- William Elliot Whitmore's label.
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