Best Records Of 2005-Ashes To Dust

This is the first in a series of profiles of my favorite records from the year. There are still more than two months left and lots of upcoming releases. But I've already decided on several great records that resonated with me.

Ashes To Dust-William Elliott Whitmore
William Elliott Whitmore is one of the more surprising artists I've encountered this year. I didn't know his work until I heard one of his songs on a college radio station while driving to the Pocono Mountains back in July. His instruments are few: a banjo, an acoustic guitar, and, oh yes, a gravelly voice scourged with years of pain and hardship that seems to stretch clear back to his upbringing on a farm on the banks of the great Mississippi River. His songs speak, holler really, about love: love gained, only to be lost, and about death. "Lift My Jug (Song For Hub Cale)" is maybe the standout track of the record, being that it has a type of energy that helps it rise above some of the other more downbeat cuts.

The real shocker came in August when I saw him perform at Rex's in West Chester, Pennsylvania, more typically a venue for what passes for punk these days. Instead of an aged rootsy bluesman, it was a tattoed, goateed 26-year old who held the room spellbound with that unflinching voice.

He'll be in Philadelphia at the First Unitarian Church on Wednesday, November 16. Here's the rest of his schedule.

From the 2005 record Ashes To Dust, you should check out:

Midnight

From the 2003 record Hymns For The Hopeless, you should check out:

Cold And Dead

Going, Going ... A Lake Disappears

Located in the heart of Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains, Gouldsboro Lake was created from a smaller lake in the early 1900s to provide ice for refrigeration. During winter, lake ice was cut, stored in warehouses, and later shipped via the adjacent Erie-Lackawanna Railroad (once owned by railroad tycoon Jay Gould) to cities up and down the East Coast of the United States. When the ice industry died out in the 1940s, the 250-acre lake was developed for recreational purposes. Gouldsboro State Park, which opened in the late 1950s, includes a beach and swimming area, nearby picnic tables, as well as boating and fishing facilities. Challenging hiking trails were cut through the woods (State Game Lands) and along sections of the old Pennsylvania Route 611.

The lake's dam, originally built in 1900, showed signs of decay over the years, and was patched with minor repairs on rare occasions until the Commonwealth's Division Of Dam Safety recommended that the structure be replaced. Drawdown began in January 2005 when the dam's spillway gate was lifted. Since then, water has continued to drain or evaporate from the lake. With a line item in the current state budget for dam design and replacement, local residents hope that construction will begin in Spring 2006.

From March 2005, this is a long view of the lake, looking towards the beach at Gouldsboro State Park. The shoreline has barely begun to change.

When the lake is at maximum capacity, water depth reaches only 10 or 12 feet in some areas. At the far end, near the State Park area, tree stumps from decades ago quickly emerged into the open air as the water level dropped.



This is a nearly identical perspective from late May 2005. The shoreline has retreated significantly, revealing rocks, tree stumps, railroad ties, icehouse foundations, anchors, and even a few bottles and beer cans thrown into the water over the years.

In some areas of the lakebed, huge beds of gravel have been laid bare. In others, mud or even standing water prevails, fed by springs or streams draining into the lake.


This is the same view from early September 2005. Grass, wildflowers, and various weeds have begun to colonize the exposed lakebed. The water in the background is a little higher than might be expected after a hot summer; recent rains brought the lake level back up for a few weeks, to mid-June levels.

Locals feared that stagnant standing water would lead to mosquito infestation, but this did not appear to have happened during the summer of 2005.