I first heard about Will some time ago when he was opening up & roadie-ing for Ten Grand, an Iowa City band fronted by someone I knew named Matt Davis. The story goes that after a while of being Ten Grand's roadie, Will was asked to open for their shows with a short set of his songs. I had heard that Will grew up listening to punk rock like Minor Threat and rap like Public Enemy, but was actually a horse farmer somewhere south of my brother's and sister's farms in Iowa. Due to those sort-of similarities between us and a quite probable crossing of other interests, I definitely wanted to learn more and even meet the guy to talk about the land's influence on his music/my art. But back then, which was around 7 or 8 years ago, I never got to see him perform.
Fast forward to about 2004, in Chicago, when I went to see a benefit show for Matt Davis' family (Matt passed away - another post, some other time). A variety of bands were playing to help raise money for funeral costs, and William opened up. Holy fuck was I blown away. There are quite a few videos of Will posted online nowadays, so if you are interested in seeing live footage, look on youtube. I simply wanted to post this 30 second clip of Will singing on top of a roof:
William Elliott Whitmore
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There you have it. William Elliott Whitemore. Punk rock Iowan with an otherworldly voice and soul for bluesey folk. Damn straight.
1 comment:
i like your blog but ui think it woulb be better if the name was RED, gold an green.
see you later alligator
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