[Cover photo credit to Vanessa Dingwell]
Sisters Eleanor and Bonnie Whitmore, both accomplished songwriters/ instrumentalists/ vocalists, have finally teamed up on a joint project and the result is the album Ghost Stories, out on January 21st, 2022, from Red House Records.
Bonnie decided to join sister Eleanor and her husband Chris Masterson in their Los Angeles closed circle for a break. Chris, who’s recorded four albums with his wife as The Mastersons, saw the visit as an opportunity to issue a practical mandate: If Bonnie was coming, it was time for the sisters to make an album. The collection also includes two covers, a song by their pal Aaron Lee Tasjan, “Big Heart Sick Mind”, and “On the Wings of a Nightingale”, which was written by Paul McCartney for The Everly Brothers. Ghost Stories was produced by Chris Masterson.
Bonnie Whitmore comments on some of the impetus behind the new songs:
We’ve had a lot of loss, a couple of dead ex-boyfriends, and a lot of friends that have passed on – and writing about the grief, especially working towards this record, there’s been a lot to consider. We have all these things that make us us. Our mother was an opera singer; our father was a Folk singer. When I heard Ian & Sylvia for the first time, I finally realized that song wasn’t our parents. That’s how we discovered music.
Ultimately, the Ghosts Stories songs “embrace the beauty and the experience of living” inspired by lockdown and shared memories.
Eleanor Whitmore adds:
Music should move people. Or at least cause some kind of reaction. Sometimes it’s comforting, or you can rock out! I’ve always liked Woody Guthrie’s way of looking at it: ‘Music is to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.’
THE WHITMORE SISTERS TOUR DATES
01/22/22 Old Town School of Folk CHICAGO, IL*
01/23/22 Old Town School of Folk CHICAGO, IL*
02/25-03/03/22 Outlaw Country Cruise
03/04/22 Opera House STOUGHTON, WI *
03/05/22 Englert Theatre IOWA CITY, IA *
03/06/22 Turner Hall Ballroom MILWAUKEE, WI *
*Supporting The Jayhawks
03/08/22 Hook & Ladder MINNEAPOLIS, MN **
03/09/22 Vanguarde Arts SIOUX CITY, IA **
03/10/22 West Theatre DULUTH, MN **
03/11/22 Bloody Mary Concerts LA CROSSE, WI **
03/12/22 Appleton Brewery APPLETON, WI **
03/16/22 Southgate NEWPORT, KY **
03/17/22 Seven Steps Up SPRING LAKE, MI **
03/18/22 Natalie’s Coal Fired Pizza WORTHINGTON, OH **
03/22/22 Club 603 BALTIMORE, MD **
03/23/22 City Winery WASHINGTON, DC **
03/24/22 Tin Pan RICHMOND, VA **
03/25/22 Epperly Mills FLOYD, VA **
03/26/22 Spinning Jenny GREER, SC **
03/28/22 Eddie’s Attic DECATUR, GA **
03/29/22 Neighborhood Theatre CHARLOTTE, NC **
03/30/22 The Basement NASHVILLE, TN **
**The Mastersons with The Whitmore Sisters
