William Elliott Whitmore, as far as I’m concerned, is the voice of Americana. He writes the best songs, his performances are above and beyond that of his contemporaries, and his message is fucking right on. Some time back, Will had sent me a postcard from the road saying that he dug our little label and that he would love to put a 7_ out with us. I pretty much flipped out. It is one thing to think that you are putting out some of the best records of your history, but it is another to hear from someone you admire that they agree. When I got Will on the phone, he told me that he was starting a new project called the Wayword Sons that would allow him to do things a little differently than what might be expected of him. He said that he was nearly done recording a song and that he wanted to do a split 7_ with his friend, Sam Lowry. Sam Lowry reminds me of a young Nick Cave and chances are you might have seen him recently on tour with Murder City Devils. Sam explains the idea behind the 7_, “In the fall of 2006, Will and I were on tour with Lucero and Rocky Votolato. Having been friends for a few years and both rolling solo, we decided to ride together and it was over the course of a couple of all day drives that we came up with the idea to do a split 7_, and to do one that was more than just one song by each of us. I think we both gravitated towards doing a murder ballad pretty quickly once we decided to try and make the two sides link up in some way. Once we decided on a murder ballad, we quickly came up with the idea that it would be a love triangle with it unclear which one of us murdered her. I think it was a few days later, we thought of having the chorus of each song be the same, tied around the woman’s name. The name Julianne worked for both of us on a personal level and it’s a good name to sing. The 7_ features two sides of a love triangle/murder ballad. Sam’s song is from the viewpoint of the husband who is being hung for the murder of his wife, Will’s(Wayword Sons) side is from the viewpoint of the lover who is on the run thinking that he’s been blamed for it.”
If you ask me, I can’t think of a better idea for a split 7_. The 7_ will be pressed initially out of an edition of 500 copies (on blood red vinyl). The 7_ will come with a download coupon.
1. Julianne- Sam Lowry
2. Julianne-Wayward Sons
Stream it here
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