William Elliott Whitmore at the Codfish Hollow Barn -- May 13.
Saturday, May 13, 8 p.m.
Codfish Hollow Barn, 5013 288th Avenue, Maquoketa IA
With his most recent album I'm with You lauded by No Depression as "a welcome offering of rootsy and rooted songs that celebrate and contemplate the personal, present moment," folk, blues, and alt-country singer/songwriter William Elliott Whitmore headlines a May 13 concert at Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn, his latest recording also inspiring Glide magazine to state that the artist "has the rare ability to paint vivid pictures with his words."
The 44-year-old Whitmore grew up on a 160-acre horse farm in Lee County, Iowa, and his family was a musical one, with his dad playing the guitar, his mother playing the accordion and piano, and both his paternal and maternal grandfathers playing the banjo. Whitmore sang from his earliest years and played guitar and banjo as a teen, and after a short stint in San Francisco, he moved to Iowa City and got involved in the DIY punk-rock scene, forming the band Lost Cause. He was also a roadie for the Iowa City punk rockers of Ten Grand, and eventually started performing as an opener for the band and touring with them extensively. This led to Whitmore getting signed to the Chicago-based office of Southern Records, with whom he eventually released 2003's Hymns for the Hopeless, 2005's Ashes to Dust, and 2006's Song of the Blackbird.
In 2009, Whitmore signed with mini-major ANTI-, with whom he released three records, among them that year's Animals in the Dark, a concept album that reached number 50 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. He followed that hit with 2011's Field Songs and 2015's Radium Death, the latter's song "Civilizations" concerning how an oil pipeline running from South Dakota to Illinois was going to go through his grandmother's property on their farm. In 2018, Whitmore signed with Bloodshot Records and released Kilonova, whose covers included songs by Bad Religion, Bill Withers, Captain Beefheart, Johnny Cash, The Magnetic Fields, and ZZ Top. Since then, beyond recording 2020's I'm with You, Whitmore has toured with Chris Cornell, City and Colour, Murder by Death, Clutch, Lucero, Converge, Red Sparowes, Modern Life Is War, Frontier Ruckus, Frank Turner, Esmé Patterson, and The Low Anthem.
William Elliott Whitmore plays his Maquoketa engagement on May 13 with an additional set by Creek Rocks, admission to the 8 p.m. concert is $35-40, and more information and tickets are available by visiting CodfishHollowBarnstormers.com.
