William Elliott Whitmore’s Sunday show at the Red Palace won’t be the singer-songwriter’s first D.C. engagement. Whitmore played at Sixth & I in April. For those who packed the historic synagogue that evening to see headliner and Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, Whitmore was the opening act that blew the audience away.
“That got me in front of a lot of people that wouldn’t have heard of me otherwise,” said Whitmore. “It was really cool. Chris is a really nice guy, and they kind of took a chance on me. That show at the historic synagogue was really fun. It’s a beautiful place. It was a chance to try and prove myself. I had to leave an impression.”
| Onstage |
| William Elliott Whitmore |
| Where: Red Palace, 1212 H St NE |
| When: 8 p.m. Sunday |
| Info: $12; redpalacedc.com |
That Whitmore had the opportunity to play his brand of haunting, bare-bones folk to a new audience was, in his words, “serendipitous.” Whitmore’s manager and a person in Cornell’s camp had neighboring seats at a sporting event. The two got to talking, and Whitmore was a last-second addition to the bill.
“I kind of fell into that tour,” he said. “It was just kind of by happenstance that I got added on. It was really serendipitous. Of course I jumped at the chance.”
Whitmore, 33, became a fan of Soundgarden as a teenager growing up on a farm in Iowa. To share a stage with Cornell and meet others in the band was “surreal.”
“It was kind of like a dream come true,” Whitmore said. “It was kind of surreal meeting all of these people that I really looked up to growing up, and here I am having beers with them. It was pretty amazing.”
Whitmore released his most recent album “Field Songs” last week. Growing up on that farm in Iowa, not far from the Mississippi River and where he still lives, influences his songs of working-man tales and salt-of-the earth sensibilities.
The musician’s full-bodied folk plays in stark contrast to Katy Perry-type pop or Brooklyn band hipster irony.
“That’s the trick,” Whitmore said. “I don’t know if it fits in at all. I’m trying to kind of put my own little drop of water in the ocean of music that’s out there and just try and do something that no one else is doing.”
After the current tour, which includes a couple of festival dates later in the summer, Whitmore says his immediate plans are to fish, hoe his garden and drink a cold beer. Then he’ll start on some new music.
“Just try to keep rolling forward.”
