William Elliott Whitmore – Song Of The Blackbird

Over three albums, William Elliott Whitmore has consistently delivered music with a rare authenticity and authority, in the process garnering comparisons to the likes of Johnny Cash, Hank Williams and Robert Johnson. Like his predecessors, Whitmore has the heart of a poet, one with a knack for chronicling the bent back and aching soul of the common man, one with an uncanny ability to break the heart and elevate the spirit. But his poetry extends beyond words, something he demonstrates during the instrumental “And Then The Rains Came” and between the lines of “Lee County Flood” and the penultimate “Red Buds”, both celebrating his beloved Iowa home turf of Lee County. Other tracks, such as “The Chariot” and “One Man’s Shame”, are filled with religious imagery, but you don’t have to be a believer to find salvation in Whitmore’s songs.