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BY TOM LOUNGES
Times Correspondent | Saturday, November 29, 2003 | (No comments posted.)
Fresh from a guest shot two weeks ago that found him jamming on stage with Harry Connick Jr., Jason Alan Whitmore returns for the holiday weekend to the tiny farm town of his youth. He is here to revisit his roots, both geographically and musically.
Though living in Nashville for some time now as lead singer and acoustic guitarist of the national southern-country rock touring group, Catawompus, Whitmore grew up in Kouts and once was a hard-rocking member of the local music scene.
"I grew up listening to my parents' records. Their collection was full of artists like George Jones, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings," recalled Whitmore of how he came to love and play music.
"Those artists hit a nerve with me. They were true rebels."
Though he learned to play guitar picking along to songs like"Ring Of Fire" and "White Lightning" on the family stereo, Whitmore soon sought to expand his musical reach with a style deemed "cooler" by the girls at his school.
Like most teenagers in the 1980s, Whitmore fell victim to MTV's influence. He soon began sporting Spandex pants, mascara and lots of hair spray while making his guitar scream on local stages as a co-founding member of Brat.
The pop/metal outfit became one of the more successful local "hair bands" on the region music scene at that time, playing prestigious Midwest venues such as The Thirsty Whale, Club Dimensions and The White House in Niles, Mich.
After a few years of running wild in the rock ‘n' roll realm, Whitmore returned to his country roots and by the mid-'90s wanted to relocate to Nashville.
"My parents gave me their blessings and some moving money," recalled the singer, thankful they allowed him the means to follow his musical dream.
As luck would have it, his strength as a songwriter landed him a development deal with Curb Records. During that same time, Whitmore became a staff writer for the label. Though nothing happened for him at Curb as an artist, some of his original songs did quite well in the Contemporary Christian market.
The Curb-signed brother/sister act, Felah, scored a national Top 5 Christian radio hit with one Whitmore tune.
"I became a little disillusioned I think. I moved back to Kouts in 1997 for a while and gigged around for a little while with the local band High Noon, but I started thinking that maybe I had left (Nashville) too early," he said. A few years ago, he moved back to give it another shot.
Whitmore soon struck up a friendship with another transplanted Hoosier, Douglas P. Gery. The Lafayette, Indiana-native was in the process of restructuring the line-up of his long-running Southern Rock band, Catawompus, and was in need of a new vocalist. Discovering that Whitmore wrote great songs was the clincher.
Ten of the eleven songs on that group's latest CD, "The Slam Bam Jam," were authored or co-authored by Whitmore.
While Whitmore is still full time with the hard working Catawompus, whose CDs are available globally through the Germany-based Halcyon Music Distribution Company, he still likes to keep his "rock side" rolling whenever possible.
To that end, he has The Rock Opry, a side project that lets him stretch out and revisit his rock past.
Tonight's Cronies concert will encompass the Southern Rock for which Whitmore's Catawompus fans know and love him, but it also will feature some classic rock and hard rock covers.
Jason Alan Whitmore and The Rock Opry
When: 10 tonight
Where: Cronies Gin Mill, 310 S. Main St., Kouts
Tickets: $3
For more info: (219) 766-3172
Jason Alan Whitmore and The Rock Opry
When: 10 tonight
Where: Cronies Gin Mill, 310 S. Main St., Kouts
Tickets: $3
For more info: (219) 766-3172
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