Whitmore Sisters Tell ‘Ghost Stories’ on their New Album

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Music Features

Coming together as adults to write and record songs has been a welcome and surprising experience for siblings Eleanor and Bonnie Whitmore, who have both previously been recognized for their solo accomplishments and work with other musicians.

Their first album together as the Whitmore Sisters, Ghost Stories, was released in late January on Compass Records. They will be appearing in Milwaukee on Sunday as part of a rescheduled show with The Jayhawks and the Mastersons, Eleanor’s band with husband Chris Masterson.

Eleanor, who also performs with her husband in Steve Earle and the Dukes, says the timing never worked out for the sisters to record until COVID-19 struck. “It was nice to be gifted a year and a half of downtime,” she says. “In a way, that’s the silver lining of the pandemic.”

It was Chris who encouraged them to record an album together when Bonnie, who lives in Austin, Texas, first discussed visiting them in Los Angeles as the pandemic began to shut down most of the world. “That was kind of the prerequisite (to visit) and the right push to finally get us to make an album happen,” says Bonnie.

Most of the songs on Ghost Stories are co-writes between Eleanor and Bonnie. There also are two covers, including “On the Wings of a Nightingale,” written by Paul McCartney for the Everly Brothers.

Musical Family

It can be tricky writing with people you know so well—especially with more intense songs, the sisters say. “They’re like our versions of little, tiny children,” Bonnie says. “They have little personalities within them. We’ve definitely gotten better with communicating with each other just in the sibling sense. It’s a lot more productive than our adolescent years.”

They come from a musical family—that also flies frequently. Their mom is an opera singer and their father a folk musician. Their dad is also a former Delta Airlines pilot, and both sisters have their pilot’s licenses. Perhaps, then, the title of the first song on Ghost Stories should be no surprise: “Learn to Fly.” Eleanor, who received classical training on the violin as a young girl, named her 2008 solo album Airplanes.

The Whitmores have played music together for as long as they both can remember. Growing up, they would cover songs by people like Patty Loveless, Kim Richey, Reba McEntire and Fats Waller.

“I think we kind of took it for granted because it was something we did all the time with each other, and then we went off and did our own thing,” says Eleanor, who is six years older than Bonnie.

“When we came together to start singing and writing together as adults, it’s almost like we tapped into this superpower that I forgot or didn’t realize we had. It’s been a lot of fun.”

Finding Their Voices

Bonnie says she thinks it took time to realize that while they wanted to find their own voices, they also enjoy performing as part of a family dynamic.

Now the sisters are on the road together performing songs on a current tour with the Mastersons that takes them through the Midwest and East Coast. Bonnie jokes that Eleanor and Chris are workaholics, and she’s just trying to keep up.

Another album from the Whitmores is possible, as they already written a couple of more songs together that could be used, they say. She feels like they’ve “cracked the code” as sisters working together, Eleanor says.

Adds Bonnie: “I think there’s a secret to the blood harmonies, and that’s always an easy thing to snare people into our web.”

The Jayhawks, the Mastersons and the Whitmore Sisters will perform Sunday, March 6 at Turner Hall Ballroom.