Summary
From 2012: Bonnie Whitmore spills the beans on her music journey, revealing how her parents essentially crafted a band with their kids as the stars. She hilariously recounts her early days, starting on the fiddle and swiftly moving to the bass, where she found her groove at just five years old. The real kicker? Bonnie reflects on the quirky interpretations of classic songs she learned from her dad, which led to a surprising moment of musical revelation when she discovered he’d been singing the Beatles wrong all along. With roots steeped in a rich tapestry of influences, from Chuck Berry to Willie Nelson, she dives into how these experiences shaped her sound and songwriting. As she gears up for a new album, Bonnie’s journey is a vibrant blend of humor, heart, and the undeniable magic of music, proving that sometimes the path to creativity is as winding as the tunes themselves.
Links
- REMINDER: IGNORE ALL LINKS OR EVENTS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE FROM 2012
- Toss a few in our Tip Jar!
- Bonnie Whitmore
- Bonnie Whitmore on Bandcamp
- You may also enjoy this conversation with Brett Detar from 2012
Show Notes
Musical Roots and Family Bonds
• Bonnie shares stories from her childhood growing up in a musical family
• Talks about how her dad turned the family into a band and handed her a bass at a young age
• Remembers learning songs that her dad slightly rewrote without realizing it
• Laughs about discovering the "real" lyrics to classic tunes later on
• Highlights early influences like Chuck Berry and The Beatles and how they shaped her musical lens
The Power of Storytelling Through Song
• Explains how storytelling became central to her approach as a performer and songwriter
• Describes music as a way to connect generations and share lived experiences
• Offers a window into the kind of songs that leave a lasting emotional impact
Life in the Austin Music Scene
• Reflects on her move to Austin and how the city helped her grow creatively
• Describes the energy and support of the local music community
• Talks about what makes Austin special for working musicians
Real Talk on the Modern Music Industry
• Gets honest about the challenges of touring, making a living, and staying afloat as an artist
• Discusses how streaming has shifted the music economy and what that means for indie musicians
• Emphasizes the need for community and mutual support among artists
Creative Process and Looking Ahead
• Shares how her songwriting continues to evolve with her personal journey
• Teases future projects and new themes she’s excited to explore
• Stresses the importance of staying open to growth and change as an artist
Why This Episode Hits Home
• Bonnie brings humor, warmth, and honesty to every story
• Her experiences feel familiar, whether you're a musician or just someone who finds comfort in a great song
• The episode is like catching up with a friend who’s seen a lot, learned even more, and still finds joy in it all
Listen in for an authentic conversation with Bonnie Whitmore about music, memory, and what it really means to find your voice. Available wherever you get your podcasts.
Chapters
- 00:11 - The Musical Journey of Bonnie Whitmore
- 03:59 - Discovering My Own Sound
- 08:00 - The Journey to Nashville and Songwriting Evolution
- 16:34 - The Challenges of Modern Music Industry
- 23:06 - Baking Inspirations and New Ventures
- 28:32 - The Variety Show Concept
Takeaways
- Bonnie Whitmore shares how her childhood was steeped in musical influences from her parents, shaping her artistic path.
- She humorously reflects on her early experiences with music, noting her dad's unique yet incorrect interpretations of classic songs.
- The podcast dives into her journey transitioning from family bands to discovering her own musical identity in high school.
- Bonnie discusses the intricacies of songwriting and the collaborative process that enriches her music in Nashville.
- She highlights the importance of community in music and her desire to create a variety show in Austin to foster connections.
- Bonnie's upcoming project promises a more upbeat tone, showcasing her growth as an artist while retaining a conceptual focus.
Mentioned in this Episode
- Chuck Berry
- Doc Watson
- Willie Nelson
- The Beatles
- Traveling Wilburys
- Tom Petty
- Bonnie Raitt
- Led Zeppelin
- Rolling Stones
- Muddy Waters
- Burt Mitchell
- Chris Masterson
- Amanda Shires
- T.J. McFarland
- Rich Hinman
- Hays Carl
- Graham Weber
- Chris Porter
- Some Dark Holler
- Pretty Pennies
Recommended If You Like
Country Fried Rock, Bonnie Whitmore podcast, musician interviews, creativity in music, songwriting inspiration, Texas singer songwriters, Nashville music scene, playing bass guitar, influences in music, Beatles music discussion, music production process, Empress Ashes album, music industry challenges, co-writing songs, live performance experiences, music and mental health, variety show concept, baking and music, music collaborations, indie music community
Transcript
Speaker A
00:00:00.800 - 00:00:11.200
Welcome to Country Fried Rock, where we talk with musicians to find out what inspires their creativity. Country Fried Rock Music Uncovered hey, song, It's Bonnie Whitmore.
Speaker B
00:00:11.360 - 00:00:38.570
Here's the basic deal. I think that my parents really had children so they could have musicians.
My dad needed a band, so he had two kids that he was gonna be like, all right, I'm grooming you to be the fiddle player. And you, you're the bass player.
I was, like 5 years old when I started playing instruments, and they unfortunately tried to start me out on the fiddle, and that was a really terrible idea. I moved promptly over to the bass by the age of eight. Kind of went from there. I kept on the low end.
I started to play cello after that and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker A
00:00:38.810 - 00:00:41.210
What were you playing with your parents? What kind of songs?
Speaker B
00:00:41.450 - 00:01:52.750
See, this is what I think is kind of funny. Mystic Situation is this. I felt like I grew up with my dad's interpretations of songs, the original version. So I was like, yes.
I grew up with Chuck Berry and Doc Watson and Willie Nelson, Townsend Dance, the Beatles, all these different influences, but they were always through the interpretation of my dad's, however he wanted to do the song. I remember coming to him when I was, like, 12 years old, and I was, like, totally getting into the Beatles all of my, like, junior high.
And they were like, oh, they're so freaking rad. And I put in sergeant hardcore band and start playing when I'm 64. And I'm like, dude, it's my dance song.
The first thing occurs to me, and then I'm like, yeah, that's. Let me rephrase that. And I listen to it, and I'm like, oh, my God, My dad has been playing this song wrong all of my life. It is not Sarah, it's Vera.
Totally messes up the second verse. So I came promptly home and be like, dad, you've been doing a Beatles song. You didn't tell me, and you've been singing it wrong.
And, like, how to make him correct. But it was just sort of funny to have that kind of background music instead of, like, most people remember playing records.
No, it was my dad playing guitar or my mom is in the other room singing opera. You know, that's the way we threw down in the Whitmore house.
Speaker A
00:01:52.910 - 00:01:57.950
Were the Beatles the first band that you were able to discover on your own what the original sounded like?
Speaker B
00:01:58.110 - 00:02:49.250
Well, it's hard to say if I really kind of think back. We didn't do very many road trips as kids. My dad's A pilot.
And I know that makes me sound so like hoity toity, but we didn't drive the places we flew. And I don't know if you've had any experience with a small airplane, but listening to music while in a small airplane kind of hard.
So there wasn't like road trip music going on.
But I do recall like the few times that we would go down to Corpus Christi, we'd drive down there and this old beat up Ford truck, my dad's, we would listen to the Traveling Wilburies. And then we had Tom Petty and we had Bonnie Raitt.
So even the music that I did hear, some of it was eclectic and you know, yeah, of course there was like top 40 country that would be on the radio station, but I don't really consider that, like that was just the station my dad tolerated, my mom tolerated the classical station. There was no other pop, whatever going on.
Speaker A
00:02:49.490 - 00:02:52.290
When or what did you start finding that was just you?
Speaker B
00:02:52.370 - 00:03:56.250
You know, I do think that like the Beatles was sort of my like first gold star find my own self. I was also influenced by my sister's tapes, which she had horrible taste. They like got me into erasure and see, where else did we go from there?
Then eventually, you know, Led Zeppelin was found when I was like 14 years old. Slowly all over that and, you know, it kind of led into a whole bunch of other stuff.
I mean, it took years to really get into like totally into the Rolling Stones. It took me forever to get to that point. I think I was like 24 when I decided, all right, I get it now. Yeah, I was so not a Rolling Stone fan.
I think it was because Mick Jagger had bigger lips than me. I don't know, that's not really it.
I guess once I got like the backstory and I really started getting into like the historical fact of like, you know, music, then you sort of can come to the Rolling Stones with the tone. Totally different aspect when you know that like Muddy Waters was the big influence, you know, and they were like, oh, okay, I get it.
It was black music that you were like, wanted to play. As a white British guy, you were.
Speaker A
00:03:56.250 - 00:04:03.250
Playing music that wasn't of your choosing for a really long time. At what point did you start playing stuff that was what you wanted to play?
Speaker B
00:04:03.650 - 00:05:28.000
When I was 15 years old, my dad had this friend that he really loved his music, really believed in his songwriting and everything, and he was wanting to put together a band. And what better band than his daughter? I'm 15 years old and I get as this guy his name is Brent Mitchell, bass player.
And so, like before everything was always playing songs with my dad. It's my dad's band and you know, especially as a 15 year old, he's kind of like, oh, so not cool. I was such a brat.
And then like, here was this guy and I like totally dug his music. It was beautifully written songs. There was a whole lot of imagery in it.
And, you know, especially for 15 year olds, you know, to like find something that actually does have meaning and like, it is pretty impressive to me. So I started playing with his band and then I just sort of. Then it became like. Not that I didn't love playing with my dad, mind you.
Like, I don't want to get the wrong impression. He wasn't a slave driver or anything like that, but it was definitely like, it was something that I always did.
It wasn't something that I came to and found and fell in love with. By starting to play music with other people outside of my family, I really got into, oh, maybe I do want to do music.
Because I mean, up until that point I was destined to be a rising, like actress star. But yeah, no, I started playing in local bands in the Dallas wars area through my, like high school years and that really got me into it.
And also by way of playing with the Burt Mitchell Band, I understood the crafting of songs and it made me want to do that.
Speaker A
00:05:28.240 - 00:05:29.120
So when did that happen?
Speaker B
00:05:29.360 - 00:05:34.880
I was 16 when I wrote my first song. I was 22 before I wrote one that I was proud of.
Speaker A
00:05:34.880 - 00:05:35.600
Right, sure.
Speaker B
00:05:35.840 - 00:05:45.750
It took me a while to like, really get into it and real, really feel comfortable in speaking and saying and telling the story the way that I wanted it. Hey, song. It's Bonnie Whitmore.
Speaker A
00:05:46.070 - 00:05:48.790
So once you were doing your own thing, where did that take you?
Speaker B
00:05:48.870 - 00:07:27.960
Well, I moved down to Austin. I lived down there for a number of years. I had a duo group with another girl by the name of Jamie Blythe, and we went by Bonnie and Blythe.
We were really big in hill country, you know, that was especially that time period. I was really just excited because I was completely supporting myself on music. Didn't really go to college, you know, I can't really sing that story.
I did not get along with school. We tried. It was like, dude, seriously, we're done. And I played with like bands down in Austin, Texas. I played with Susan Gibson.
I played with Ray Willie Hubbard.
Picked me up for a couple shows every once in a while or something like that, you know, I just got a chance to play with some great Texas singer songwriters. Got into putting together my own group, being Bonnie Moore instead of the bass player. And I did that for sell.
And then I kind of got this weird bug in me that I was like, okay, I'm going to go and I'm going to travel. I'm going to do all these different things. Decided I needed to make a new change, so I moved to Nashville.
I keep saying it was like five years ago, but I think it was more than five years ago now, you know, moved out there, and luckily for me, I had a guy that I was playing bass with and had moved up there, so I could at least get up there and start playing music right away. Instead, I have to really slosh around, get people to notice you. So the basement in Nashville, this is the best one.
So, like, I was playing with this guy, Mondo Signs, who I love, absolutely love. And I'm playing the guy that owns a place, Mike Grimes, whatever. He's a bass player. And so it was like, it didn't matter if I was good or not.
It was like, you were a good bass player. I will book you. And I was like, yes, awesome. This is the way I like doing things. I totally work Nashville from the back door, not the front door.
Speaker A
00:07:28.040 - 00:07:28.440
Right.
Speaker B
00:07:28.840 - 00:07:57.560
The record store and the venue combined. Those are two things you don't really find as often and as cool as they are, you know? Yeah. And really, it was the best sound.
There were plenty of other places to play in Nashville, but none of them sounded as good. Kind of the draw. And it was because it was a small place, too. It's like you got 10 people in the audience and you were like, dude, I'm rocking out.
This place is packed. Whereas when you get like 50 people but in a like 300 room, you're like, I am so lame.
Speaker A
00:07:59.210 - 00:08:00.810
So how did Nashville evolve for you?
Speaker B
00:08:00.970 - 00:08:24.490
Nashville taught me how to write a song, really write a song. And I got a chance to do some co writing.
I did a couple of songs with Amanda Shires, co wrote with another guy from Oklahoma by the name of T.J. mcFarland. And, you know, just kind of really got into it.
I say that this album that I put out, Empress Ashes, I'm extremely proud of that album for a lot of different ways, but they were all like, I'm really proud of each one of those songs.
Speaker A
00:08:25.390 - 00:08:31.550
Did you do the whole co write situations or were these more organic in that you were friends with someone? You said, hey, let's write a song.
Speaker B
00:08:31.630 - 00:09:39.040
Yeah, it was more like, hey, let's write A song. I mean, I did do a couple writing sessions with people, but we never really got that far. I mean, I did, like, sit down and I wrote a song with Mondo.
I have yet to go back there and play it again. Sometimes I don't like the song or anything like that. It just. It just didn't come.
Like, most of the time when I write with somebody, when it fits, it's just. It's so easy, and that doesn't always happen. Like, I've written a number of songs with Amanda Shires that we haven't released by any means.
Or I like them, so I put them on my record. Those two songs that we got out of it. Like, the first one that we wrote was gto, which is on my record. And it's the fun song that we wrote.
Completely hungover the next day, and it came out and there we go. We had the song. The next song we wrote together that we finished was Cowboy Lullaby. And that one we kind of had a couple.
I had some writing, she had some writing. And we just sat down and we created this song and progression and all that kind of stuff. And it really worked for that song.
Like, each song has its own individual personality, and you can't. At least I can't assume that I can write every song the same way.
Speaker A
00:09:39.280 - 00:10:03.820
Several great musician friends of Country Fried Rock generously donated songs for a free music sampler.
Download it at NoiseTrade.com CountryFridRock 19 songs to help raise awareness and money for Nucci Space, a nonprofit serving the mental health needs of musicians in the Athens, Georgia area. Find out more about new cheese@n u c I.org hey, this is Bonnie Whitmore.
Speaker B
00:10:03.820 - 00:10:05.980
And you're listening to Country Fried Rock.
Speaker A
00:10:06.220 - 00:10:09.820
What led to that looking like it was going to become a record?
Speaker B
00:10:10.460 -...
