Episode 32: Beth Whitney

Beth Whitney joins us from her home state of Washington, to discuss her album “Into the Ground”, recently released on Tone Tree Music. It is a wonderfully rich, at times orchestral collection of songs that draws deeply from the forests and high desert landscapes of Beth’s home state. We hear about Beth’s early years singing with her family, how a procrastinated school assignment birthed her first song, and what the heck is a swarmatron?

From the deep woods, Beth Whitney emerges with a stunning follow up to The Wild Unrest. Recorded just weeks before lockdown in 2020 with her long-time producer, Brandon Bee, Into the Ground, examines unlamented laments and uncovers wisdom from the wilderness with orchestral sweeps on a bed of simmering strings and earthy rhythms.  

     Beth Whitney’s songs, written mostly in a log cabin outside Leavenworth, WA, with husband/upright bassist, Aaron Fishburn, hum with whispering and broken tones and what No Depression called an “almost medieval approach” to modern folk. Born to a poetic carpenter and a singing painter, Beth was raised with her five siblings at a much lower elevation on a small farm nestled between dark waters of the Puget Sound and sleepy foothills of western Washington.

    “We talk so much as a culture about flying and souring into the sky,” the Pacific Northwest singer notices, “but it's really been a season of digging into the ground for wisdom, acknowledging needed work and healing, and hopefully, planting healthier things for tomorrow.” Full of humming strength and earthy resilience, Into the Ground picks up where The Wild Unrest left off, venturing further into the high country and into the ground beneath with an awakened patience and surrender.