D Whistle: The Highland Storm

Growing up in Darlington Pennsylvania, David Louthan started out developing his music skills by picking up a guitar at age 13, and this self produced singer songwriter has never looked back.

It seems it took a while for the music production bug to bite fully, but in 2006 David set about stepping up his musical goals, and focused himself on seriously producing and recording the catalogue of songs he had started building up through his formative years.

David cites a diverse range of influences on his life, from the retro sounds of Tom petty, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and The Doors, to the slightly later sound of bands like The Red Hot Chili Peppers. When you listen to David's music the influences are evident, and he handles straight ahead acoustic guitar based tracks such as the Bob Dylanesque 'Just a Kid’ as skillfully as more psychedelic influenced tracks such as 'Misguided Fear'

The term singer songwriter is often used to define a genre of its own, but most artists who classify themselves as such generally want to impart the fact that the songs are telling the story.

Running through David's playlist of songs on his SoundCloud page, he tells a story of humble determination in pursuit of your dreams, with tracks such as 'Family' reminding the listener of the age old adage that if they follow their heart, they wont go far wrong in life.

Something I'm sure we can all relate to is the tale of growing up too quickly and succumbing to the pressures of adult life. Sometimes we'd all like a day off and spend the day in the proverbial candy shop, reliving those carefree days of our childhood. David's message in the song 'Just A Kid' reminds us that there's a higher power helping us out in life, which should give us permission that quitting our worries, and taking time out to get in touch with our childlike side wouldn't do us any harm now and again.

A similar theme runs through the laid back piano and acoustic guitar melodies of ‘There’s A Place’ which arouses a very 60’s influenced feeling, encouraging us to find that part of our psyche that gives us the freedom and serenity to create and visualize our dreams. Going by the creativity contained in his catalogue of sad songs, I’d say that in his music David Lee Louthan has definitely found ‘his place’.   
Review by Simon Adams

I have had the joy of making bamboo flutes for 49 years and have handmade over 150,000 wind instruments. It has been an adventure making flutes in Mexico, Guatemala, Argentina, Brazil, Hawaii, Costa Rica and Fiji, where I got to play for their President. May my music bring you peace and joy. 

Our flutes and saxes are available at ErikTheFlutemaker.com.

D Whistle: The Highland Storm

Erik the Flutemaker