William Elliott Whitmore

Whitmore made a big impact with his previous album, 2009's Animals in the Dark, which combined a great deal of contemporary anger with traditional instrumentation. The Iowa native has carried that over into Field Songs, although his outlook this time seems more optimistic. Opening with banjo tune "Bury Your Burdens in the Ground," Whitmore is ready to turn the page on recent events in America and start rebuilding. Greatly helping out in this process are the blues and gospel touchstones that remain the foundation of Whitmore's songwriting. "Everything Gets Gone," "Let's Do Something Impossible" and "We'll Carry On" are the most obvious rallying cries on the album, exuding the kind of heartland soul unique to all American folk-based art forms. In that respect, Field Songs provides a logical flipside to the general hopelessness of Animals in the Dark, and is best heard in that context.