William Elliott Whitmore: Song of the Blackbird

With the name of a poet and the voice of a mountain, William Elliott Whitmore seemed to be bred for folk music. Growing up on a horse farm on the banks of the Mississippi River, it would seem as though the life of this man has culminated itself into a collection of stories that are told over simple banjo or guitar pickings that harkens back to the days of American folk music being played on front porches all across the South.

Whitmore’s voice sounds like it has lived years before his body was born, and is perfectly complimented by the instrumentation that accompanies it on this disc. The nine tracks that make up Song of the Blackbird are sparse, intimate, and comfortably alluring. William Elliott Whitmore makes music that upon first listen is like meeting a new lifelong friend, a quality that is as unique and attractive as the music he creates.

- Chris Smith
William Elliot Whitmore (Southern)