William Elliott Whitmore is a singer songwriter/banjoist/guitarist/drum-stompin’ solo act from Lee County, Iowa. He has released six full-length albums that seamlessly meld country, blues, folk, and punk styles. His songs are haunting, rustic, powerful, and real – byproducts of living his entire life on the family farm and being involved in the hardcore-punk scene in the local community. Whitmore’s new album Kilonova, his first long-form release for Bloodshot Records, is a collection of 10 cover songs from artists who have influenced his 15 plus-year career. Each of the tunes offers a glimpse into how his attitude and aesthetic were formed, like a series of tattoos, scars, or other time-accumulated personal markings. In the stark a capella take on Dock Boggs’ 1920s old-timey hit “Country Blues” you can hear WEW at the pulpit, evangelizing the truth to his believers. The classic Harlan Howard country number “Busted” is updated with a swampy, bluesy version revealing a modern despair and then there’s the erratic, demented and raspy-baritoned cover of Captain Beefheart’s “Bat Chain Puller.”

But there are some surprises as well. While celebrated amongst a punk and indie rock audience as much as he is by country-folk heads, when WEW puts his unique spins on Magnetic Fields’ “Fear of Trains” and “Don’t Pray on Me” by Bad Religion he makes the songs his own, bending their original style into the nebulous artistic nature he has created. It’s punk rock without the breakneck tempos, it’s rock-and-roll without turning it up to 11, and on the Bill Withers’ 1971 original “Ain’t No Sunshine”, Whitmore is every bit as soulful and poignant without having Booker T and Donald “Duck” Dunn as his backing band.
180g vinyl plus download.