William Elliott Whitmore - I'm With You (2020)

On his eighth full-length album I'm With You, William Elliott Whitmore takes a steely gaze through a foggy existence to see a clearer version of himself. Instead of focusing on the murky complexities of the greater world, the punk rock preacher-meets-pastoral philosopher widens the horizon of his True North folksong, navigating a path through life's profound and deep-rooted intricacies. I'm With You is his first album of original material since 2015's Radium Death (ANTI-) and follows his 2018 covers album, Kilonova. Aided by his raspy voice, country-baked banjo and hard-strummed guitar, Whitmore takes an inventory of ego, family, friends, life lessons, death, ripple effect, creativity, and emotion. And like most lessons worth learning, I'm With You isn't always clean and simple. "MK Ultra Blues" is about what can happen when a nation makes decisions out of fear, "Put It To Use" is the singer's interpretation of wisdom he's drawn from the dead, "History" details how the past informs our future. Now more than ever, these reflections could be the songwriter's most affecting legacy.Through impassioned and personal stories, Whitmore's creative blend invites the listener into his familiar world. "Put It To Use" combines a driving banjo strum, bass drum stomp, and lilting violin drone to shake the dirt from the farmhouse floorboards. In other moments - "My Mind Can Be Cruel To Me" and "Black Iowa Dirt" - twangy punked-up country punches right through the mix, leading the listener into the sweaty crowd of electric, spirited, smokey clubs where WEW has held court since his debut album in 2003. In "Save Ourselves" and "I'm Here" one can hear the imperfections of nature and the passage of time from those long, homesick highways - a rural and gruff soulfulness, a rhythmic limp, a hitch over notes.The themes of I'm With You are an extension of a two-decade career in which Whitmore has become defined by a probing mind, steady hand and level-headed approach. The Lee County, IA based singer-songwriter is a calming voice amongst chaos, the friend you call when you need advice, and these nine songs are him working through a number of knotty spiritual equations posed by the cosmos