Bonnie Whitmore

By Richard Skanse

“Let’s make a rock record …”

When Bonnie Whitmore launched her PledgeMusic campaign for her third album back in April, her mission statement could not have been more straight-forward. Although neither of her first two albums, 2010’s Embers to Ashes and 2013’s There I Go Again, were remotely reserved, shrinking-violet affairs, let alone any more overtly “country” than say, mid-period Lucinda Williams, this time around, she aimed to really turn things up. “There will be fuzz,” she teased in her pitch letter. “There will be shredding. There will be full tilt vocal and bass prowess!”

Her accompanying video double-downed on that promise with the straight-up warning, “Get ready — I’m coming, and I’m ready to rock.”

Courtesy Bonnie Whitmore
Don’t f*@k with this girl. (Courtesy Bonnie Whitmore)
She really meant it, too — but not just in terms of cranking the amps and picking up the tempo. More than just showcasing louder guitars, bass, and drums, she wanted to rock her “inner feminist” and shake, rattle, and upend the double standards, stereotypes, and myriad forms of misogyny — intentional or not — that women are confronted with every day of their lives. And true to her word, she didn’t hold back: the finished album, which Whitmore is allowing LoneStarMusicMagazine.com to stream in full in advance of it’s official release tomorrow (Oct. 28), is every bit as brash, bold and fearless as its unapologetically provocative title: Fuck with Sad Girls.

This is no pity party; it’s a battle cry. And a wake-up call.

Whitmore, who grew up in Denton playing in a family band called Daddy and the Divas, credits a lot of that strong, assertive influence to her mother — a “true diva” in the sense that she was a proud, opera-singing woman who presented herself with a lot of confidence and a refusal to take shit from anybody. “I think she instilled that in my sister and me both, so I think I’ve always had that kind of drive,” she explains. “But I think it wasn’t until later in my life that I really started to understand more about what it actually means to be a feminist. And to me, part of that means asking what it is that you’re doing that’s contributing to … not so much helping women come up, but rather pushing them down. It’s a lot of things that people don’t even realize they’re doing, and a lot of women do it to themselves and to other women. Just, all the expectations of how you need to look or present yourself, and the whole idea that it’s more important for you to smile and come off as kind and courteous than assertive and opinionated. Because if you’re assertive, you’re not thought of as inspiring; you’re called a bitch or a …”

A “nasty woman”?

“Yeah, you’re a ‘nasty woman,’” Whitmore says, gathering steam. “In fact this election has really been showcasing a lot of things that are essentially wrong these days, just in the way that misogyny is so … Like, it was really frustrating to me that people were focusing on the word ‘pussy’ that Trump used, rather than the fact that he was wanting to sexually assault a woman. That was what people were really upset about. I mean, I could give a shit about an explicit word …”

album-cover-aloneAlthough her new album was already finished before the expletive really hit the fan going into the three presidential debates, Whitmore concedes that the timing of her release has indeed turned out to be “kind of impeccable” — no matter how unsettling a lot of the parallels may be. But the big picture issues she addresses on Fuck with Sad Girls have roots that go back a lot further than the current election cycle. Both the title track and “Fighter” push back against the notion of needing to hide one’s feelings or true self for the sake of being more appealing to others (“I don’t strive for perfection,” she sings in “Fighter,” “because I’ve earned these scars I’m wearing.”) And in “Cinderella,” she goes all the way back to the fairy tales and Disney movies of her childhood to confront and summarily reject the idea that finding one’s Prince Charming is the key to “happily ever after.”

“As an adult, it’s just kind of disheartening to look back and realize that that’s what was expected of us as little girls,” she says. “I’m in my 30s now and I’m not married and I don’t have children, and I don’t have any regrets about that. But I think a lot of girls that are in my position do still feel that pressure to have babies and find a husband, just in order to feel ‘complete.’ And I think that there’s other ways around that.”

Next to the cover of the Drivin ‘N’ Cryin anthem “Ain’t Waitin’ on Tomorrow,” “Cinderella” is this rock record’s most overtly rocking moment — thanks in part to a very special cameo. “Jon Dee Graham plays on that one — he does that unhinged slide part,” Whitmore says proudly, then laughs. “That was his description, by the way; he said it sounded ‘unhinged.’”

Other guests on the album, recorded at Austin’s Ramble Creek, include Bonnie’s sister, Eleanor, and her brother-in-law Chris Masterson, with both singing on “Hey Babe” and Chris playing guitar on “Wash It Away” and the aforementioned Drivin ‘N’ Cryin cover. The core band, all of whom essentially co-produced the album with Whitmore and engineer Britton Beisenherz, consisted of guitarist Scott Davis, drummer Craig Bagby, and keyboardist Jared Hall. Whitmore herself played bass — remarkably, for the very first time on one of her own records. Despite her years of experience playing the instrument onstage, both with her own band and as a seasoned side musician, Whitmore left all the bass parts on her first two albums to Austin musician’s musician George Reiff.

“And George is still the only other person I would ever ask to play bass on my records,” she insists. That’s why, even though Reiff has spent most of the last year battling cancer, Whitmore made it a point to play two of his basses on the record — just so he could still “be a part of it.” Nevertheless, going forward, it’s hard to imagine her ever giving up the instrument on one of her albums again.

“I went a little crazy and used seven different basses on the album,” she admits. “And that was a lot of fun for me, because leading my band playing bass — I prefer that more than anything. So this time around, I just really wanted to showcase what I could do on the instrument.”

Tellingly, Whitmore’s bass playing just happens to be the very first thing you hear on the record, right at the outset of the opening track, “Wash It Away.” Mention that little observation to her over the phone, and you can almost hear the hint of a devilish grin.

“Yeah,” she acknowledges. “That was a little deliberate.” - Lone Star Music Magazine

Fuck With Sad Girls
Bonnie Whitmore’s feminist anthem
BY KEVIN CURTIN, 11:15AM, MON. OCT. 17, 2016

printwrite a letter
“No one really wants to fuck with sad girls,” goes the rousing chorus for Bonnie Whitmore’s latest single – emphasizing a certain verb that almost certainly disqualifies it from mainstream radio play.


Sad in style: Bonnie Whitmore (Courtesty of Bonnie Whitmore)
“I could’ve changed the word, but the point was to get a conversation going,” admits Whitmore.

The singer-songriter, 33, has something to get off her chest about the expectations American culture puts on females. According to Whitmore, who grew up in Denton and counts Eleanor Whitmore of Austin’s Mastersons as a sibling, it begins with little girls being told crying is unacceptable and persisting through life with the mother of all backhanded compliments: “You should smile more. You’re so much prettier when you smile.”

“People want you to put on a persona that makes everyone else feel better, rather than being honest with yourself,” she says. “They don’t realize how rude and disheartening it is. For me, this song expresses that you don’t need to hide your emotions, but champion them. You’re sad? I’m like that too. Let’s emphasize and interact.

“We can get through it together.”

Whitmore reclaims the emotional integrity of sadness with her new single, a dynamic blaze of heavy Americana-pop that finds the University of North Texas alum grabbing patriarchy by the shirt collar and screaming truth in its face. “Fuck With Sad Girls” serves as the title track for her third LP, which arrives Oct. 28. Over 10 songs, she addresses the stigmas placed on “imperfect” women.

“Originally I wanted to make a rock record,” reveals the guitarist/bassist. “There ended up being a lot of different flavors – not one genre. To me, it’s a full-tilt vulnerability record.”

Check out a breathtaking live performance of “Fuck With Sad Girls,” captured at the Townsend by director Curtis Wayne Millard. - Austin Chronicle

Texas-based up-and-comers Bonnie Whitmore & Her Band are premiering their latest track “Fighter” exclusively for readers of The Boot.
“Fighter” is the first single from Whitmore’s forthcoming album, F–k With Sad Girls, a 10-song story that examines the expectations that society places on women, especially those who don’t play along with its rules. The song was influenced by Whitmore’s own realization that her dreams of musical stardom may not have panned out exactly as she’d planned.
“I had come to the realization that my dreams of ‘making it’ may not be an option anymore, and my career / life was not [going] according to plan. Although this was heartbreaking, the realization we were having was that maybe ‘making it’ wasn’t the point,” Whitmore tells The Boot. “It wasn’t going to change the fact that we still wanted to play music … accolades or recognition or fame wasn’t the goal. What was important was to pursue the art and not worry about the notoriety.
“The other thing I realized,” she adds, “is that I am a masochist, because I still choose to play music, no matter how hard and painful it can be.”
“Fighter” may have a bit of a somber tone, but Whitmore insists that it’s ultimately about accepting one’s own freedom.
“When dealing with your expectations and dreams, it can be very painful to let go of the hope it gives you. If you can face your reality and be brave despite the obstacles or expectation that are upon you, then I believe it can give you the freedom to be you,” she says. “”Fighter” is a want to not give up, but give into what was most important and what is most fulfilling.
“For me, I am enough,” she continues. “I am flawed. I am imperfect. I am not just expectations. I am only me.”
Whitmore’s third album, F–k With Sad Girls is the follow-up project to 2013’s There I Go Again. A Denton, Texas, native, Whitmore first began playing bass in Dallas-Fort Worth-area bands at the age of 15; from there, she worked with acts such as Justin Townes Earle, Hayes Carll, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Sunny Sweeney. Now, Bonnie Whitmore & Her Band are based in Austin.


Read More: Bonnie Whitmore & Her Band, 'Fighter' [Exclusive Premiere] | http://theboot.com/bonnie-whitmore-and-her-band-fighter/?trackback=tsmclip - The boot

When the quality of music suffers, its seems to weigh more heavily on women in part because the music industry is run by men who are more visually than audibly stimulated. That in a nutshell is what the problem is with the music biz, period.

~Bonnie Whitmore

Bonnie Whitmore and Her Band are based in Austin Texas, where they’ve been churning out stirring blues and country tinged rock with an authentically feminist message. On October 28 they’ll be releasing their new album, F*ck with Sad Girls. (You can listen to the single “She’s a Hurricane,” here.) Supporters of the album’s successful PledgeMusic campaign received a complimentary concept album Coyotes: Life and After Life.

Recently Bonnie took the time to answer the Mindful Bard’s questions about creativity and being a woman in the music industry.

(More of this interview can be read at http://www.voicemagazine.org.)

Tell us a little about the album Coyotes: Life and After Life.

This is a conceptual and collaborative project. The idea was to showcase the arc of a song’s beginning and the potential of where it can go.

I’ve been wanting to do a project with Juicy the Emissary for a long time. Since high school, in fact. I loved his R&B style and beats, but didn’t know how to get to that place myself. So a couple years back I approached him with this idea. I wanted to do it predominantly on vinyl because of the A verus B aspect of the project.

Side A, “Life,” is the bare bones of the song, just acoustic guitar and vocals. Side B, “After Life,” is Juicy’s melody interpretation of that same song with only the vocal to go off of. What he created is beautiful and completely out of the realm of my norm.

I know it’s not for everyone, but I do love what we created together. It took me out of my comfort zone and allowed me to hear this song of mine in a new and different way.

How easy is it for a woman to break into the music industry— and stay there— these days?

First of all, you have to be good and most of the time better then the men.

It’s not easy to be in this business as an artist, period. The industry side is lazy. They want what will help their “bottom line,” but their formula is outdated and doesn’t really create anything, just repackages the same sound in pretty wrapping.

If you look at the history of music, to me the most creative and diverse contributions were in the ’60’s and ’70’s. That period wasn’t about what you looked like, or what sex you were, but the quality of the music. Carole King, Aretha Franklin, Carol Kaye, Emmylou, Dolly Parton . . . just to name a few women who shaped the sound of that time and still influence music today.

The resurgence of female-powered rock in the ’90’s was uplifting, but went by the way of the Disney powder-pop. Teen angst is good, but everyone gets tired of being yelled at, and that’s not all we as women artists are.

When the quality of music suffers, its seems to weigh more heavily on women in part because the music industry is run by men who are more visually than audibly stimulated. That in a nutshell is what the problem is with the music biz, period. Sexism is still strong and outspoken in this and many industries, and there’s no point in denying that.

I do think we are at a turning point, but that has more to do with women supporting fellow women and likeminded men who can see past the genitalia to the quality of sound and song. For me personally, I want to hear quality music, not just equal parts men and women.

Carol Kaye said it best: “the (music) notes are not male or female, they are only good or bad ones.”

What advice do you have for other female musicians?

We do have to be better than our male counterparts, but that’s the easy part. If you love it and this is what you want to do with your life, then do it. Don’t let anyone or anything get in your way. Don’t apologize, don’t lower your self-worth or expectations; just be honest with yourself and your art. That’s what’s important and should be put above all else.

Turn the narrative. If they say it’s because you’re a woman, then show what it really means to be a woman. Because that’s what we are, and it’s not something you apologize for or think of as “lesser than.”

Do you have any advice for adolescent girls— advice that you wish had been given to you?

I was lucky and was usually given great advice. The things you get in trouble for are usually the things that people will praise in you as an adult.

Listen to what they mean and not always to what’s being said. The best advice is the hardest to hear and usually has to do with being patient. If you’re willing to grow, you have all the potential in the world. Talent is good, but the work you put into it is what will make you great.

What conditions do you require in your life in order to go on being creative?

I don’t really require anything to be creative other than to give it an outlet. I write when I’m processing emotions or issues, and I practise when I have something I want to learn. I admittedly am a procrastinator, but I try not to set myself up to fail.

What do you feed your muse? Are there any books, films, or albums that have deeply influenced your development as an artist?

Life is the best muse. All art forms are influential as well. Collaborating is another great creative outlet. I’m always up for borrowing or elaborating on truths. The main thing is to realize when your muse is calling.

Do you think that artists have a responsibility to do what they can to straighten out the world a little?

Is it something you think about and possibly hope for? Sure. Responsible for, no. Art is supposed to be an honest expression of your true self no matter the dark or lightness. It is first and foremost the art. You can’t predict how it’s going to be interpreted. Once you give life to that art, it becomes it’s own entity. You can have the intention and want for it, but not the control. If it turns out as you plan? Well that’s the luck of it.

If you had an artistic mission statement, what would it be?

I live by two mantras. “Breath in the suffering, breath out the love.” That’s the basis of most of my meditations.

When that doesn’t work, then, “Not my circus, not my monkeys.” - The Mindful Bard

By Andrew DansbyOctober 5, 2016

Singer-songwriter Bonnie Whitmore Photo: Eryn Brooke / Copyright 2016 Eryn Brooke. All rights reserved.
Photo: Eryn Brooke
IMAGE 1 OF 3 Singer-songwriter Bonnie Whitmore
Each of the students in Bonnie Whitmore's fifth-grade class received a certificate that hinted at a future their teacher envisioned for them - future scientist or future veterinarian or such.


Whitmore received a future actress certificate.

"I was an emotional kid with depression issues," she says. "So it was a diplomatic way of giving me the crybaby award. And a boy in the class was a jerk about it and said that: 'Why didn't you give her the crybaby award?' And, of course, he got his desired effect."

Whitmore's third album may have begun at that moment. "(Expletive) With Sad Girls" was hatched from cultural practices like crybaby awards and the decades-spanning command, "Smile!"

"The mentality that nobody wants you if you're sad, don't show how you feel, that's what this is about," she says. "How you're more attractive if you smile. Forget how you feel, and just be a clown and entertain people so they feel better. These are ways we've spoken to women forever to cut them down or marginalize the way they feel. And it's not just men doing it. Women do it, too, which is heartbreaking to me. So that was the inspiration."

MORE INFORMATION

Bonnie Whitmore

When: 7 p.m. Thursday

Where: McGonigel's Mucky Duck, 2425 Norfolk

Tickets: $22; 713-528-5999, mcgonigels.com

Originally the title track was supposed to be based on the phrase "no one wants to (expletive) the fat girl." Whitmore planned a co-writing session with a promising young singer-songwriter in Nashville and presented him with the idea. "He said, 'Um, no thanks.' The song transformed from fat to sad, but the theme remained in place: the diminishment of one's value based on the perception of outsiders.

"I just wanted to be honest," Whitmore says. "I wanted to be who I am. And I hope it relates to anybody who wants to be outside a box that has been built for them. Where people don't understand you outside the box they made."

Not surprisingly the album possesses sharper edges than Whitmore's two previous releases, which worked closer to cinematic Americana and country music. Here she's gotten louder, with more rock-centric arrangements to fit a collection of songs that she only partially jokingly calls "a feminist rampage, in a way."

MUSIC

Electronic musician Nicolas Jaar performs Monday at White Oak Music Hall. Electronic musician Nicolas Jaar feels quiet, restless pull of On November 25, Black Friday, Boston-based vinyl imprint Get On Down will release a Texas-shaped vinyl copy of the tag-team single “Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You)” into record stores. The song saw Texas rap act UGK and Atlanta duo Outkast team up for a catchy anthem that was seemingly inescapable the summer of 2007.  Texas-shaped vinyl record will be a must-have for UGK and Outkast Solange has released a new album, "A Seat at the Table" with the single, "Cranes in the Sky" showcase Houston's iconic Alley Theater in the video. Solange gets the chopped & screwed treatment Musician Elvis Costello photographed by James O'Mara Elvis Costello's deep catalog to drive show En esta foto de archivo, Roger Waters y su banda ensayan con miembros del Wounded Warriors Project en Nueva York. El miércoles 28 de septiembre del 2016, en el primero de tres conciertos que ofrece esta semana en la Ciudad de México, Waters arremetió contra Donald Trump y llamó al presidente mexicano Enrique Peña Nieto a “escuchar a su pueblo” y responder por los miles de desaparecidos desde que comenzó su mandato en 2012. (Foto por Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, Archivo) Roger Waters sets 'very secret' Houston date FILE - In this Jan. 12, 2012, file photo, Bob Dylan performs in Los Angeles. Dylan was named the winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize in literature Thursday, Oct. 13, 2016, in a stunning announcement that for the first time bestowed the prestigious award to someone primarily seen as a musician. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File) Bob Dylan a worthy Nobel outlier
Whitmore, 33, is based in Austin, with roots in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where she grew up playing in a family band fronted by her folk singing father and featuring her multi-instrumentalist sister Eleanor. Her first album "Embers to Ashes" possessed an almost film noir quality, with cinematic storytelling and a body count. On the new one, she chips away at a false reality presented by film and fairy tales.

"I love the movies as much as anybody, but this idea of an America that people miss and want to return to, it didn't exist," she says. "It all depended on the culture you grew up in, but it's bigger and more diverse than that. John Wayne played a great cowboy, but he was an actor. So it sucks to look in the mirror and be told you aren't the person you think you are."

So Whitmore populated her new record with beautiful and flawed characters frequently detangling themselves from thorny situations. She plays with language throughout, phrases she heard that were perhaps not delivered with malice, but that nevertheless were reductive, like "She's a Hurricane."

"I've been referred to as a natural disaster, a force of nature," she says. "And I was taken aback by it. It felt like a backhanded compliment."

"Fighter" and "Used to Call Me Baby" both touch on the ways men define women.

"Who's to say what's right for you?" she sings on the album. It becomes an unofficial mission statement.

The notion of perfection becomes the album's most clearly focused target.

"Everybody has a vice, and none of us are perfect," Whitmore says. "I hate the word 'perfection.' There are these mantras people go through regarding perfection. But it's an idea nobody can live by. It's not real. And it kills people who become consumed by it. I'd rather strive to do and be better."

Whitmore doubled down on the theme with the album's production, which she bankrolled with a crowd funding campaign. Whitmore also declared up front that a quarter of her funding campaign would go to Planned Parenthood. Considering her roots in country music, she endured some blowback. But she sees the organization as connected to the album's thematic content.

"In the three years since my last album I came to an agreement with myself," Whitmore says. "To me it's about growing as an artist and having the freedom create without restriction. So funding it allowed me to create honestly and independently and it goes beyond 10 songs that I picked and recorded. They're supposed to tell a story. To be an honest representation of me, imperfections and scars and all." - Houston Chronicle

Another Americana Star is Born

Three weeks ago I’d never heard of Bonnie Whitmore; but a positive review of the Mastersons; of which Bonnie’s sister Eleanor is 50% meant I received this delightful surprise through the post yesterday.

Sometimes it can take me several plays of a record to get a taste for it; but with THERE I GO AGAIN it was during the first spin that I decided that I was now an unashamed fan.

Even without an array of songs that are really well written, interesting and intelligent Bonnie’s voice would still excite me if she was singing a telephone directory.

There is a richness and depth to her singing style that can only be equated to Stevie Nicks and Linda Ronstadt and she is supported by a band that wants the listener to hear the singer without trying to steal any glory.

The title track There I Go Again opens the album and is the heady mix of modern Country and Mountain Music that so many singers coming out of Music Row have failed to achieve in the last 10 years (you know who I mean).

Heartbreaker is pretty much what it says on the tin; and Bonnie’s voice soars and sweeps not unlike Dionne Warwick did on her song of the same name; but this song is Americana right through to the core.

THERE I GO AGAIN is Bonnie Whitmore’s second album and, much like its predecessor was written on the back of a broken relationship; but this time she certainly isn’t feeling sorry for herself as Too Much Too Soon and Cryin’ Out For Me, which follows will testify. Whitmore isn’t sitting crying in the corner; she’s giving as good as she got in song.

I keep coming back to the rolling rootsy Borderline time and time again and I don’t know why; as it has all the hallmarks of a great Alt-Country song with the punchy drumbeat and organ groove; but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone like Mumford and Sons recorded it note for note.

The album ends with the wonderfully sweet and soulful Be The Death of Me; which features some clever acoustic guitar playing, but it’s the subtle mandolin breaks that made my hair stand on end.

As is the way of the World these days THERE I GO AGAIN is the product of a Kickstarter campaign and those who supported Ms. Whitmore can be assured that she won’t be Americana’s Best Kept Secret for much longer. - No Depresion

During a Fat Tuesday celebration at Plano’s's Last Chance Saloon in March, the heavily beaded and soused patrons that packed the popular suburban spot were focused on a ditzy cougar-wannabe who insisted upon earning Mardi Gras prizes the easy way outside on the club’s patio. Meanwhile, just a few feet away from the distracted party people, a rather quiet musical performance was taking place.


It was quite the juxtaposition: The Botoxed shirt-lifter repeatedly brandished her bead magnets as an acoustic song-swap was rather unsuccessfully taking place on stage between three area country songwriters. Then, rather suddenly, after an hour-long battle for the revelers’ attention, the focus of the rowdy crowd shifted away from the breasts and to the stage, turning the evening’s tide.

The clutch performance came from one Bonnie Whitmore, who, as she strummed the initial notes to “You Gonna Miss Me,” the standout track from her new debut solo record, Embers to Ashes, was still playing to a drunkenly preoccupied crowd. By the time the song had finished, however, the crowd was on its feet and cheering—for a woman who had managed to keep her shirt on.

It’s little surprise that Whitmore possesses the ability to cut through the noise with her talents. Artistic passion and proficiency are in her blood, thanks to her parents (Alex and Marti Whitmore) and an older sister (the fiddle-playing Eleanor Whitmore), who are all expert, accomplished performers in their own right. Whitmore has been honing her ability to sonically control a crowd since she was only eight years old, back when she started playing the bass and cello in her dad’s folk band.

“My dad loved music, so I learned how to play an instrument because that’s what we do—we play music,” Whitmore says over the phone as she prepares for a tour of Alaska, where she has many musical friends whom she’ll gig with over the course of a few weeks. “I learned about Doc Watson, The Beatles and Willie Nelson through my dad’s versions of their songs. I firmly believe that artists are more influenced by their adolescence than any modern musical influence.”

After building confidence in her own playing, Whitmore joined the band of Brent Mitchel at 15 and toured throughout Texas. It was that time with Mitchell that helped her evolve from an instrumentalist into a developing songwriter. Not surprisingly, such a neon-lit education was more desirable to the talented teen than the formality and cliquishness of a standard education

“When I started playing with the Brent Mitchell Band, I was in high school, and the reasons I had wanted to go to high school weren’t important to me anymore, so I started home-schooling,” Whitmore says. “I couldn’t enjoy high school because away from school, I was constantly around older people. I would then go back to school on Monday and have to deal with the whole society of high school, and it didn’t work for me. So I fully immersed myself into the decision to play music.”

Even with her sultry Southern vocal talent evident in her late teens, Whitmore used the following couple of years in North Texas to play bass for regional acts such as Kevin Deal and Mark David Manders. Whitmore then headed to Austin just shy of her 18th birthday to play with the likes of noted country songwriter Susan Gibson. Even then, Whitmore continued to occasionally display her ever-increasing writing and performing skills.

“In Austin, I really embraced my songwriting,” she says. “I was getting in a groove with it and I was getting some really good responses from it.”

But this gifted artist with an impressive bloodline worked diligently to reach the standard she set for herself. When looking to transition from playing in the shadows of a stage’s side to the front and center position, positive feedback proved to be more valuable than big paydays.

“When I started writing, I was terrible,” Whitmore admits. “I knew I could sing, but baring your soul as a writer is a different thing. When I started having people want to see me and hear what I was saying in my music, it was surreal. I think there’s something to be said for creating art directly from your own soul and having your own voice and giving your own interpretation of things.”

In 2006, after some bouncing around between Austin, Denton and S an Marcos, followed by some traveling abroad, Whitmore, who is also an avid baker working on her first cookbook to be published sometime in the next year, moved to Nashville. Thanks to her friendship with the established Nashville-based folk-rocker Mando Baenz, she landed a steady gig playing bass in his band, which helped ease the culture shock that a move to Music City can often cause.

As it turned out, though, Whitmore wasn’t quite ready to show Music Row her own material just yet.

“I decided to be a musician and not a singer-songwriter in Nashville,” she says. “That way, I wasn’t going to browbeat anyone with my music in open-mic nights or by playing covers on Broadway. If being a singer happened naturally to me, then cool, but it wasn’t the route I was choosing to take at that time.” - Dallas Observer

Bonnie Whitmore played in her family’s band as a child, joined the Brent Mitchell Band when she was only fifteen, and released her first solo record by twenty-two. Whitmore’s dual roles as sought-after bass player and independent songwriter offer a breadth of professional choices, but also pull her in different directions creatively: from playing Austin City Limits one night, to a tiny club with ten people the next. The ebb and flow of a music career sometimes has a quickly turning tide. Whitmore, though, has not caught the right wave yet.
As an in-demand sideman on both bass and cello, Bonnie Whitmore created deep personal and professional friendships with noted players and songwriters. Recently, Whitmore has been most recognized for her time playing with Hayes Carll. Even her immediate family remains connected to music, with a side project called The Pretty Pennies with her sister Eleanor and friend, Leslie Mendelson, and Eleanor’s main project, The Mastersons, with husband, Chris (formerly of Son Volt). Chris Masterson produced Embers to Ashes, bringing in their support team of George Reiff, Falcon Valdez, her sister Eleanor, and the only overdubs of pedal steel with Rich Hinman–a stellar lineup of friends and family making the whirlwind two-day recording sessions happen.
Bonnie Whitmore’s songwriting comes from her personal life, albeit embellished. Given her propensity for creative ways to murder an ex–metaphorically, of course–her former beaus are treading in dangerous waters. Some of the sweet-sounding songs are the most dark lyrically. Whitmore and her friend, Amanda Shires, co-wrote several songs, some of which are on her latest album. Organic songwriting partnerships work for her, but the forced ones have gone nowhere. Similarly, Whitmore herself has recently relocated to her home state of Texas–again–from Nashville. Embers to Ashes has resolution in its concept, but is also open to a sequel, as her next album (to be recorded late winter) will likely be. - Country Fried Rock by Sloan Spencer

Whitmore began her music career by playing bass as an eight-year-old in her father’s family band, Daddy & the Divas. Her father, who was a pilot for Delta, would fly the band to remote Texas bars to perform. This exposure to country music early is evident on her first album, Embers to Ashes. Following Embers, she spent time in Nashville before returning to Texas where she joined Hayes Carll’s band for a stint. Her sophomore release, There I Go Again, is decidedly less country and more Americana highlighted by poppy hooks. - Paste

By Andrew Gilstrap 14 August 2013
As many have pointed out, 2013 has been a pretty good year for young female country artists. Kacey Musgraves, Holly Williams (granddaughter of Hank Williams), Ashley Monroe, and Caitlyn Rose are just a few of the musicians who have released strong albums this year. Another newcomer, Brandy Clark, who co-wrote a song with Musgraves, has her own highly-anticipated record coming soon. If there’s one name that needs to be added to that list, though, it’s Bonnie Whitmore.

Whitmore is the sister of Eleanor Whitmore, who forms half of husband/wife duo the Mastersons, whose Birds Fly South album was one of 2012’s best Americana efforts. Eleanor and husband Chris Masterson offer Bonnie plenty of help on There I Go Again, supplying everything from backing vocals to guitars, violins, pedal steel, and more. Both Eleanor Whitmore and Masterson are experienced hired hands, having worked with acts like Son Volt, Kelly Willis, and Steve Earle, but there’s a real sense of musical sympathy when they team up with Bonnie.

For all that family chemistry, though, this is firmly Bonnie Whitmore’s record. She’s a take-no-prisoners kind of singer—think of clear-voiced artists like Tift Merritt or Aimee Mann—who can cover a lot of vocal ground (she often performs with Hayes Carll, providing raucous counterpoint on his drunken hook-up duet “Another Like You”). With There I Go Again, she also shows an evolution from the Americana sound that defined her previous release, 2011’s promising and enjoyable Embers to Ashes. Here, she’s moved beyond a strict Americana sound and taken on more pop leanings. That’s pop that keeps its twang and growl, though, in a way that’s reminiscent of Tom Petty.

Perhaps most impressive about Whitmore’s songwriting—and singing—is her unique way of going from a no-nonsense kiss-off with bite like “Heartbreaker” (“You ain’t nothing but a heartbreaker / You ain’t nothing but a reason to cry”) to a tender love song. Lots of singers can do that, of course, but the imagery in a song like “Colored Kisses” is especially noteworthy when Whitmore sings lyrics like “Hold us under the water colors / We can tangle each other in these sheets / I will stencil you with my fingers / You can color me in your kisses.” Later, she brings it home with “let’s try living and breathing / as a new form of healing / I will sing in mermaid tones / but please don’t turn me to sea foam.” This is the same songwriter who left at least two men dead on Embers to Ashes.

In the end, Whitmore might chafe at being lumped in with the latest group of Nashville starlets, or of even being labelled “country”. Even having just turned 30, she’s been playing music and performing for nearly as long as some members of the new crop have has been alive. The hope that many listeners lay on that group, though, are that they’ll finally return some small part of Nashville away from the booming country-rock machine it’s become and stake out a claim for songwriting and personal artistic visions again. In that sense, Whitmore very much belongs in the company of any group whose members aren’t afraid of being accessible, as long as it allows them to stay on their own paths. To this listener, Whitmore is very much part of a groundswell of talent that shows no signs of letting up, who should be penning insightful tales of life—and singing them well—for years to come.
Rating: 8 - Pop Matters

"Wash It Away," lead track from the provocatively titled Fuck With Sad Girls, Bonnie Whitmore's third effort, starts low. Just her on bass. What builds from there becomes a full-fledged anthem with gospel chorus and waves of orchestral strings that match the song's oceanic theme. Even so, the pop-inflected title track will likely get the most attention. (There's that four letter word after all.) Both serve as jumping-off points for Whitmore's desire to have a conversation on human relationships and the need for empathy in an age where it's sorely missing. She follows the pair with Pretenders-like rocker "Cinderella," dismissing life as a fairy tale as Jon Dee Graham on lap steel urges her emotions to even higher peaks. As a whole, Fuck With Sad Girls showcases Bonnie Whitmore at the top of her abilities as a songwriter, using a broad palette of styles to get her social commentary across, and doing it with a superior amount of finesse. - Austin Chronicle REVIEWED BY JIM CALIGIURI