Now Playing: 'Johnny Law' from Animals In The Dark

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It’s been thirty years now since Howlin’ Wolf died and, in the decades since his passing, no one has matched the raw vocal power that he commanded. Wolf could punch listeners in the guts and wind them with just one syllable of course, but it was when he moaned in that low, ground-shaking baritone that everyone listening could feel it resonate in their bone marrow – they singer’s potency and presence was just that powerful. For those reasons and more, Howlin’ Wolf is justifiably regarded as a classic figure in the pantheons of both blues and popular music and no one has ever tried to challenge that position – but does that mean no one could? Wolf’s songs were very much the product of a time – with the flavors of civil unrest, racial inequality, poverty, desperation and redemption dominating songs like “Spoonful,” “Backdoor Man, “Moanin’ At Midnight” and “Smokestack Lightnin’” to start – would those themes translate to a new century? On Animals In The Dark [his fifth album since appearing in 1999, and first for Anti –ed], William Elliott Whitmore draws in the connecting lines to prove they do and does it in a baritone that rivals the true, warm tone of Wolf, but in addition to utilizing a timeless form, he updates those ideas with some punk and hardcore-identified senses of proletariat pride, forthright honesty and a take-no-shit stance to show that they still hold water and the whole thing isn’t just an exercise in nostalgia.

As the album opens with military snare-and-bass drumming and gang choral call-and-response in the appropriately dissenting “Mutiny,” Whitmore starts walking with a purpose and with an authority built from equal parts soul and righteous indignation which produces an attractive and arresting vibe. It’s a genuinely magical moment – the sound of a weary survivor still with some fight left in him standing up in protest to show that he won’t ever be laid low – that Whitmore stands behind on each of the following nine steps that he treads through the album’s runtime. He stands tall and steadfastly through songs including “Hell Or High Water,” “Lifetime Underground” and “A Good Day To Die,” but it isn’t as if he’s asking for volunteers to join him along the way not even other players; any additional instrumentation is slight (many songs are made up only of Whitmore’s voice and guitar or banjo) and production spare – like the singer has made Animals In The Dark as a personal test of will and strength. He sees adversity around every corner and ready tto leap out at every turn (“Who Stole The Soul” looks dry-eyed upon heartbreak while “Johnny Law” sneers at cops, “Old Devils” takes aim at the US government and “Hell Or High Water” weeps for fallen friends) but still he walks on tall; refusing to give any one of those adversaries any more time for address than they’re due.

Even so, the soul in the singer’s voice can’t help but betray some empathy and, when he preaches some divine anticipation and intervention in “There’s Hope For You” there is also more than a passing hint of resignation in it when he moans “There’s hope for you, but it’s much too late for me.” It’s actually staggering how bleak that sentiment is for a singer that has yet to celebrate his thirty-first birthday. In the end, as “A Good Day To Die” fades out and listeners are left to try and decide what they’ve just experienced, it suddenly becomes clear: age and hardship are not active contributors to playing the blues well, as Howlin' Wolf once illustrated, the most important elements are desire and will. William Elliott Whitmore has a surplus of both here and he will expose the uninitiated to a process of belief that will leave them forever changed.

Artist:
William Elliott Whittmore official website

William Elliott Whittmore myspace

Album:
Animals In The Dark is out February 17. Buy it on Amazon.