“Sometimes you try to paint the town red, and it just turns out pink,” mused William Elliott Whitmore as he began his set on Sunday night in a very red bar, The Red Palace.
The combination of a small third-story room and a sold out crowd made for a very intimate performance setting as the audience faced the fully tattooed and slightly sweaty Whitmore, on stage armed with no backing band, but only with a guitar, banjo, and bass drum.
Whitmore is an artist who clearly feels comfortable on stage, as he conversed with the crowd in his deep, Iowa-accented baritone and happily accepted their offers to buy him beers and whiskey drinks. Unlike many artists who quickly run through their pre-determined set, Whitmore would play tracks he had never before recorded like “South Lee County Brew,” a delightful song about moonshine, on-the-spot suggestions shouted out by his fans, and songs from EPs that were many years old.
One such song was “Black Iowa Dirt” from the 2003 EP Hallways of Always. Whitmore passionately sang about the terrain of his homeland, evoking an early Johnny Cash-style enthusiasm for the music that was very palpable by the audience. Another song that excited the crowd was the Bad Religion cover “Don’t Pray On Me.” On the surface, a cover of a song by a punk rock band seems out of place for a banjo player from Iowa, but the sentiments in this song about dissatisfaction with wars, religion, and the plights of common man are something with which both genres take issue and illustrate well through music, and this Bad Religion/Whitmore combo is no exception.
Another song that Whitmore played that takes up issue with society is “Johnny Law,” from 2009’s Animals in the Dark. Loosely based on when Whitmore himself was wrongfully arrested and spent a night in a cell, this track’s narrative describes the squirrelly, yet headstrong traits of America’s corrupt law enforcement.
Nearly two hours later, after two glasses of whiskey and one Two-Hearted Ale, Whitmore finished a set that left fans both young and old feeling satisfied. Hosting shows like this, with intimate audiences that are true fans of the artist performing, can certainly be hard to find among the Justin Beiber’s and New Kids On The Block reunion tours of today’s musical landscape. But when found, they are performances that music fans should cherish.
