WILL POWER

Austin-based Bonnie Whitmore returns with a bass-packed new album—and some serious food for thought...

- BONNIE WHITMORE

''I started out in a family band when I was about eight years old, so I didn’t know who any bass players were,” says Bonnie Whitmore, whose new album Last Will And Testament is available now. “My dad wanted a bass player, so that was the instrument that I got. As I grew older, I became aware of Paul McCartney and Carol Kaye, of course, but then also Kim Deal of the Pixies.”

For the last 20 years, Whitmore has accompanied a wide range of Americana musicians, including Hayes Carll, John Moreland, Eliza Gilkyson, and Butch Hancock, while writing and recording her own material. Asked why she’s releasing Last Will And Testament now, she explains “It seems like a perfect storm right now, and this record needed to come out because of that. It’s exactly where it’s supposed to be, and at the right time.”

“I’ve been hanging on to some of these songs for a while,” she adds. “I wanted to launch into separate topics that I think are worth discussing. There’s so much anger and frustration that people feel, and I’m interested in finding out where that comes from.”