I had the pleasure of seeing William Elliott Whitmore perform twice this week. Once at The End of the Road festival and once at The Relentless Garage in London. Both times he blew the audience away with his remarkable voice, his stripped down blues guitar and banjo and his Iowa farm boy charm. Like Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie and Mississippi John Hurt before him, Whitmore makes the best kind of blues. The powerful, simple and heartfelt kind. It's rare and exciting to find this brand of authentic folk blues music being made today.
Whitmore, who began his career supporting hardcore punk bands, is a contemporary blues voice for our times. He has the demeanour of a man who thinks and feels deeply and he obviously has the gift of being able to distil these feelings into his music. With his tattooed arms and his anti-establishment lyrics he creates a bridge between traditional blues folk and modern punk and alternative music culture.
For those of you who missed it check out his Daytrotter Studio recording here: http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/arr/william-elliott-whitmore/110354.html
and his mighty Jools Holland appearance here:
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