Judy Whitmore Unveils Her New EP ‘This Is Home’

A tribute to 250 years of America.

Judy Whitmore | Photo: Amy Cantrell

On This Is Home, Judy Whitmore approaches the American songbook with a polished, vibrant energy that’s determined to make these standards gleam again. Backed by lavish arrangements and an orchestra that rarely settles for understatement, she presents patriotism as something cinematic: all bright brass, velvet strings, and carefully burnished sentiment.

The sense of scale is the point. Whitmore has built a career that extends far beyond singing and includes aviation, publishing, psychotherapy, and theater. And This Is Home carries the same air of polished ambition. The EP works because it lets the music do the talking.

Produced and arranged by seven-time GRAMMY-nominated composer Chris Walden, the EP relies heavily on grandeur. A 39-piece orchestra gives these songs a widescreen glow, with the Pacific Jazz Orchestra players supplying the kind of immaculate detail that can make even the most familiar melodies feel newly dressed.

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Whitmore has been working toward a release like this for years. After performing in a trio and issuing a run of albums devoted to pre-rock elegance, she arrives here with a project that feels tailored to her strengths: clear diction, classic phrasing, and a performer’s instinct for turning reverence into spectacle.

Opener “The House I Live In” sets the tone immediately. The strings arrive in a generous sweep, the brass adds ceremonial precision, and the piano glitters at the edges, infusing the melody with shimmers. Whitmore meets all that pageantry with a poised vocal performance, steering the song toward tenderness rather than chest-thumping bombast.

Her take on “America the Beautiful” is even more effective. The arrangement lets the emotion gather slowly, layering harmonies until the song feels less like a patriotic staple and more like a memory expanding in real time. By the climax, Whitmore is suspended inside a glowing chorus that gives her vocals both weight and lift.

Judy Whitmore — ‘This Is Home’

The liveliest moment comes with “Over There: You’re a Grand Old Flag,” where Whitmore finally sounds unguarded enough to cut through all the polish. A flash of “Auld Lang Syne” adds a wink of nostalgia, and the arrangement moves with a springy confidence that suits her best. It’s the one point on the EP where celebration feels genuinely loose, not merely well-appointed.

At its strongest, This Is Home delivers patriotism with old-school finesse. Whitmore has a gift: she understands how to sing the songs with conviction, style, and just enough theatrical glow to make their sentiment tangible.

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