Punk as Folk: William Elliott Whitmore

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WILLIAM ELLIOTT WHITMORE'S songs are earthy — they're about hard times, family and the harvest cycle — and he didn't need to look far for inspiration for his new album, the rousing and anthemic "Animals in the Dark." The singer still lives on the same farm that he grew up on — and it's a real farm: there's an outhouse, a feisty mule and a sad horse that can no longer carry the weight of a rider.

"I'm splitting some fire wood," Whitmore said soon after picking up the phone.

"I don't have running water. My girlfriend is pretty cool, she doesn't mind the outhouse, but it's to that point where I'm going to have to build a real bathroom."

Stirred by loss, angst and punk rock, an 18-year-old Whitmore left the farm and hit the road. "My father had already passed and my mother was about to pass," he said. "I moved to a town called Iowa City that was maybe an hour away. There was a university there — you could go see Fugazi, Jesus Lizard, get your window into the world."

Through punk shows like these Whitmore started to get interested in the underground music scene, and he eventually wound up performing, too.

"I met all these cats, just doing my folk thing and playing my banjo," he said. "I would hop in the van with these indie-rock bands and they would let me open up for them. ... It was weird playing in front of a room full of hardcore kids. But that's where the hunger is, that's my scene. And I knew that if I was going to do anything, it wasn't going to be through folk, but through the hardcore scene. I'd just think, 'I had better play and sing as hard as I can. I'd better fucking bring it.'" (So, it makes sense then that "Animals in the Dark" is on Anti-, the folk arm of punk label Epitaph.)

Whitmore's life as a full-time musician subverts any agricultural ambitions he might harbor, "but I'm in my stride," he said. "I feel good about being on the road. I kind of need both worlds."

» Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW; with City and Color, Wed., Jan. 14, 8 p.m., $15; 202-667-4490. (U St-Cardozo)

Written by Express contributor Aaron Leitko