Whitacre is not your typical folk rock band. When you dig into their small but impactful catalog, which features their debut album Seasons, you’ll immediately get the sense that these guys are anything but ordinary.
The Denver, Colorado, band is just a few years old, born out of the solo endeavors of Paul Whitacre. He recruited Mark Cunningham, Chase Perry, and Kyle Miner to round out the lineup and rebranded from his full name to the aptly-named Whitacre. Soon, they were releasing singles and started gaining buzz thanks to shows with Mt. Joy and Yoke. Before long, they’d built up enough momentum to unleash Seasons; a near perfect-sounding slice of gritty Americana that sounds like an edgier and more potent version of what you’d hear from the top-selling artists in the genre today.
“Here, Again.” is a shining example of the boundaries that Whitacre pushes both sonically and musically. Paul Whitacre’s voice is all emotion with no bombast or flexing—it’s a vehicle for his lyrical storytelling, not unlike great songwriters and lyricists like Jeff Tweedy and even Michael Stipe. There’s an animation to the band, especially on a song like “Here, Again.” that is undeniable, thanks in part to an ambient lap steel part that runs through the song and a wash of reverb that makes the song sound like it belongs in stadiums as much as it does coming from your record player.
Their latest release is an EP of songs from the debut album reimagined in more acoustic, stripped down arrangements. It’s the first time the band recorded and produced anything on their own, but it certainly doesn’t sound that way. It’s a testament to the songwriting and vision of Paul and his bandmates, and an example of what makes a song truly great. The songs on the reimagined EP hold up just as much in more sparse configurations as they do when they’re fully produced and realized in a studio setting.
The future looks bright for a band like Whitacre, and SCENES is excited to partner with the band for a Live Sessions show, which presents the band in as vulnerable a light as possible—completely acoustic. It’s maybe the best way to see a band like this, in their most authentic and human configuration. However you end up seeing this band, though, there’s no doubt that they’re destined for great things beyond Denver for years to come.
