Jenny Hoyston and William Whitmore Issue #30

Hallways of Always (Southern)

By Andrea Bussell
Published: December 1st, 2006 | 12:00am

Disparity — like that between Jenny Hoyston’s art-noise band Erase Errata and William Elliott Whitmore’s deep-blues Americana — ought to be the necessary ingredient for a duet album. While a musical divide could signal disaster as surely as it could innovation, something should be at stake. Some sort of tension — if only the tension of novelty — should be there for the project to really sound like a noteworthy collaboration, rather than one artist merely singing backup on another’s album.  

Hallways of Always keeps with the rash of genre-crossing duets that have recently appeared (e.g. Mark Lanegan/Isobel Campbell, Jack White/Loretta Lynn, Sufjan Stevens/Rosie Thomas) but lacks that necessary conflict. Hoyston and Whitmore were friends long before they were collaborators — living together in San Francisco and touring with their respective musical outfits — and here, their familiarity seems to have stunted them. The songs sound uninspired and lazily simplistic, deficient even of the considerable individual talents of their creators.  

Hoyston, at least, stretches her vocal capabilities to show that she can sing bluesy, acoustic ballads as well as carry a raw improv tune (most surprising on “You’ve Already Gone”), yet Whitmore’s characteristic banjo plucking and backwoods aesthetic dominate. On Hallways of Always, he hasn’t done anything unexpected and, while that’s not exactly unpleasant, it’s definitely disappointing. Considering that both musicians claim significant punk roots, it’s a wonder there isn’t more going on here