photo by sparxsea
The sideways emulsification of psychedelic blues rock, freak folk and organic storytelling of "Solar Princess" (by critically acclaimed alt-psych-freak-folk songwriter Whitney Walker) swings, dances, slaps and tickles mysterious ways. The song whizzes by, feels funky and kind of delirious in it's freewheeling constructions in swanky ways pushed along by banging piano, slippery guitar lines, popping drums and especially ballsy sax throttles by legendary baritone saxophonist Dana Colley of the band Morphine (Vapors of Morphine) as Walker waxes poetic. Walker's vocal tone is at once conversational but equally dramatic in the artful way he expresses his storytelling. Beautifully curious lyrics provide feelings more than explanations and because the song is so short (or relatively so) it feels like an introduction of sorts, a walk up a path or down dark stairs to some hidden place full of longtime cohorts and maybe an enemy or two.
LYRICS
My solar princess your harvest queen's pace
It smacks a smile upon my face
Your ruby caress your evening dress
A moments noticed a moments blessed
She will carry you in her fur
To where the others were
Five fingers imbedded in the sand
Tell the tales of prehistoric man
Ceres the sun hits your soul
Through a seed
And plants a foundation
Firmly rooted indeed
It smacks a smile upon my face
Your ruby caress your evening dress
A moments noticed a moments blessed
She will carry you in her fur
To where the others were
Five fingers imbedded in the sand
Tell the tales of prehistoric man
Ceres the sun hits your soul
Through a seed
And plants a foundation
Firmly rooted indeed
LINER NOTES (excerpted / bracketed):
[Walker, himself began grabbing the attention of music writers and fans with the release of his debut full-length album, A Dog Staring Into A Mirror On The Floor (RascalZ RecordZ 2023), which featured prominent contributions from legendary baritone saxophonist Dana Colley of the band Morphine and Vapors of Morphine. With praises from the likes of Paste Magazine, ChorusFM, and Glide Magazine, to name a few, the COVID-era lockdown release garnered Walker a much wider audience. Colley would continue collaborating with Walker and again was featured on the 2024 Whitney Walker EP release, Where To Go And How To Get There (RascalZ RecordZ 2025), with the four songs on that release now included in the ten-song forthcoming LP, Blood Harmony (OUT 5/10/26 on RascalZ RecordZ).]
[Blood Harmony, unlike Walker's debut LP, is the sound of a real working band. The album breathes and pulses with a tribal heartbeat, and drummer Robert Mitchell's steadfast rhythm feels like a big top tent holding an entire circus within its walls. On the album opener, and holdover from the recent EP release, "Orangutan", Walker sings that "...her name is an apostrophe!" while a gospel wall of organ sound drowns out the proclamation with a haunting atonement.]
["My mission statement for what I'm trying to achieve is chop philosophic vs. bubblegum rock, which is the first sentence in the chorus to Ladina. Poetry over compelling music basically. My dad got me two tapes when I got locked up in my first psych ward, both best of. Lou Reed Walk On The Wild Side and Ramones Mania. So I'm attempting to combine those two vibes most often." - (Walker, 2026)]
I look forward to checking out Whitney Walker's upcoming third full length "Blood Harmony" (dropping on 5/10/26 via RascalZ RecordZ)
-Robb Donker Curtius
The Chicken Wheel will take you to the AP Go Fund Me- and any amount is so appreciated!
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://open.spotify.com/artist/61fiLNeZGePmy88z8kvYMu
https://www.instagram.com/whitneywalkermusic/
https://www.facebook.com/winstonwalkering
https://x.com/WOWtheband1
https://www.whitneywalkermusic.com/
https://whitneywalker.bandcamp.com/album/blood-harmony
Whitney Walker - A Dog Staring Into a Mirror on the Floor (out Mar. 3 via RascalZ RecordZ)
Portland, Maine indie-noir singer-songwriter Whitney Walker’s new album A Dog Staring Into a Mirror on the Floor covers ground in similarly dark literary veins as Nick Cave and Tom Waits, with the help of Dana Colley of Morphine’s ominous saxophone and bass clarinet throughout the record. It’s an album that’s equal parts grungy dirge and triumphant march towards humanity after years of dealing with bipolar disorder, homelessness, addiction, divorce and keeping his family together.
“These songs are about love or death,” Walker says. “They deal with extreme emotions through the skewed lens of someone with manic depressive viewpoints, plus the addiction. What ties it all together is the title, A Dog Staring Into a Mirror on the Floor. Apparently if that happens, a dog will go insane because they see themselves infinitely through the mirror. Their brains can't handle that. So I guess the mirror to me would be drugs and alcohol, my mom dying, my dog dying and growing up in a broken home. All that stuff leading to intense mental health issues.”
The album kicks off on a positive note with “Amatle” (pronounced a-mot-ley), a birthday song forged from the love of his new wife. It implements a middle-eastern droning waltz, and uses a non-standard blues tuning that Walker found on the back of a John Fahey record. The album then moves into the dark folk-rock melancholy of “Love Keeps No Record of Wrongs,” a direct quote from the priest at his cousin’s wedding while Walker was dealing with the pain of an unfaithful fiancée. “Nobody would accuse me of being perfect except god,” sings Walker over Crooked Fingers style fingerpicked guitar and Colley’s somber bass clarinet.
“I don’t believe in God,” says Walker, “but I believe something’s out there. This is a divine intervention song. I’ve been far from perfect. I’ve been emotionally unavailable to people, and it took me a long time to figure that out.”
Walker has been fronting bands non-stop since he was a teenager living just outside of Boston in the ‘90s. He moved to Oregon where he met his then wife at 18 years old, and got married at 21. From there he moved over 13 times between Oregon (Bend, Eugene, Portland), Chicago and North Carolina before eventually settling in Maine, where he’s been for the past 12 years.
Walker's life veered way off track in the ‘00s when he began using drugs in a significant way, leading to divorce, custody battles, and eventually finding himself homeless in Portland, Oregon, living under an overcoat in Laurelhurst Park. A pattern of homelessness would continue throughout Walker's adult life, inspiring the song "Reverse Cowboy," which was written as an ode to the 'King of the Homeless', a legendary transient in Portland, whose nose was broken seventeen times.
This was the height of Walker’s addiction, living in a culture of waking up and needing to drink then figuring out where to score some cheap cocaine and weed while getting three meals a day at Food Not Bombs. He was obsessed with the idealized hobo life presented in the 1926 book You Can’t Win, by the burglar hobo Jack Black. All the while, Walker was battling with his bi-polar diorder, culminating in an attempted suicide by stabbing himself in the heart multiple times, leading to two open heart surgeries and a month-long coma.
“I wrote the song, ‘Single Job Wide’ the morning before my suicide attempt,” Walker says. “It only happened because I had an adverse reaction to a medication and it made me suicidal. I'm not a suicidal person. I called my psychiatrist and he never called me back, then he charged me for the appointment that I missed when I was in a coma. It was a long recovery, but I had a wonderful nurse named Heather who really took care of me.”
“Heather from Here” is a Pixies-esqe, dark-pop, indie-rock track about the townie girls in every small town getting drunk and dangerous nightly, with backing vocals from Brooke Binion (theWorst). This is an ode to all the “Heathers” of the world, and Walker has known a few. “She does not know that she will always be from here,” Walker sings. “People speak of her like a monument / She’s likely outside drinking warm beer / I never know if she’ll make it through a night / She’s working class but she’s never had a job / I don’t know how that exists.”
The Blue Öyster Cult meets Violent Femmes folk rock of “The Second Civil World War III” deals with arguments in relationships. “Freedom and Money” wouldn’t be out of place on a Clash record, dealing with class warfare and the freedom that’s provided when you come from money, as his ex-wife did. Like a warbly, psychedelic, David Lynchian street corner, “Shoeless Joe” is Walker’s ode to busking for money in the streets, something he’s all too familiar with. Written when he was 23, “Make Love in the Middle” is a trippy rocker built around the fantasy of Walker and his ex-wife making love in a pond, surrounded by vineyards, when visiting the Biltmore Estates while they were in their early 20’s, back in better times. “Johnny Fountain” served Walker his very last drink. This song is an elegy to his friend who died too soon of colon cancer. “Maybe the road will find us again / Maybe the road never ends,” sings Walker.
Walker was finally able to turn his life around in 2011 by getting sober. He then became a social worker and now helps addicts find treatment and rehabilitation. Because of his own personal struggles with mental illness, he holds an active position in the Portland, Maine community through assisting the destitute. In 2014, Walker became friends with Will Bradford, bandleader of SeepeopleS, and during the recent COVID-19 lockdown, Bradford and his band mates, alongside Whit's current bandmates and extended musical family helped bring his songs to life.
Album closer “Hey Buddy” was written for his brother’s wedding, a picturesque love song for two people who called each other buddy as a term of endearment. It takes the folky indie rock of The Dodos or Rodriguez’s “Sugarman,” but with a fuller sound that’s elevated with moments of piano pop charm and the twinkling of bells. Is this a “white picket fence” utopia that Walker will ever see?
“I feel a lot more stable,” says Walker. “I’m married now. I’ve had two manic episodes during the pandemic, but I feel like the music I’m making is better than ever. I’m feeling more human and connected to who I am than I have in a long time.”
A Dog Staring Into a Mirror on the Floor is a dark yet hopeful journey through Walker’s life of loves lost and gained, wandering among the forgotten masses of homeless, mentally ill addicts, and through it all, finding hope in family and friends. There’s wonder in this record.
“My music is for the people who don’t fit in,” says Walker. “People on the margins: drug addicts, homeless kids, closeted homosexuals, transgender folks. My dad came out to me first, which meant a lot to me, and my kid came out as non-bianry. This record is for people who look out the window and wish they weren’t in school.”
Walker released the first two singles, “Amatle” and “Reverse Cowboy,” during the pandemic. A Dog Staring Into a Mirror on the Floor is out Mar. 30 via RascalZ RecordZ. Walker is already working on the next record, and plans to tour after this album’s release.
Whitney Walker, Portland Maine, alt folk, psych folk, freak folk, singer songwriter, storyteller, fringe folk, new third album "Blood Harmony", RascalZRecordZ records, storyteller, street poet, "Solar Princess" (Official Video),
No comments:
Post a Comment