Who put William Elliot Whitmore on my iPod?

I hand-pick every song that accompanies my bike ride. The other day, I was biking up Flagstaff Mountain and on came this hypnotic, howling hymn

William Elliot Whitmore - Old Devils

A building tempo with unrested sawdust filled vocals, giving a sense of urgency and anxiety. I re-played it about 5 times before I had to let my iPod go to the next song. I have NO CLUE how it got onto my iPod or into my music library. Did I get it from a music sampler? A blog post? A friend? Bueller?

Nonetheless, William Elliot Whitmore is a dead lock in my musical alley. Similar to Ray Lamontagne, Dylan, Joe Pug, Flynn...Whitmore possesses the burnt voice that simply conveys the truth with some americana attitude and some nice southern strumming. Music fit for a dusty bar accompanied with a pipe and a scotch on the rocks. Whitmore's debut album, Animals In The Dark, from Anti Records is available now. And it seems I'm 2/2 folks (see yesterday's post). This album is complete. No other way to say it - it's a complete album. Organ, church chants, banjo, stomping, guitar, soul and gospel transformed into americana-alt rock. I strongly suggest you get this album now.

William Elliot Whitmore - Mutiny

Three decades old and 6 albums deep, William Elliot Whitmore emerges from a horse farm in Iowa on the banks of the mighty Mississippi. Whitmore came from a family of musicians; his mom played the accordion, his father played guitar and his grandfather plucked the banjo. After losing both of his parents in a short period, Whitmore dealt with his grief through songwriting and either fair or unfair, he has drawn many comparisons to traditional alt. country folk like that associated with the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack. To get some more on Whitmore, head over to a great interview by Dan Bullock's on OnMilwaukee.com.