William Elliott Whitmore

William Elliott Whitmore is a 28-year-old punk who cradles his banjo and acoustic guitar in tattoo-scrawled arms. But if you didn’t know better, you’d think his voice belonged to some gritty old bastard with a longtime two-pack-a-day habit and an intimate relationship with Jack Daniels. Whitmore’s simple arrangements—often just vocals over banjo or guitar—and introspective lyrics (“Don’t alter my altar / Don’t desecrate my shrine / My church is in the water / My home is underneath the shady pines,” Whitmore rasps wearily but ?rmly in “One Man’s Shame”) make for a stripped-down sound that’s personal and endearingly pure.