Preview
JENNY WHITELEY
Friday, September 10
Merlot
Talking on her cell phone while dodging traffic on foot to make a massage appointment, Jenny Whiteley is trying to explain her swift success as a solo artist, which happened shortly after releasing her Juno Award-winning self-titled debut in 2000.
"I think my timing was really good for one thing," she says. "It was around the time that people were just interested enough in getting away from mainstream country, and pop for that matter, and wondering about the roots of those types of music."
Theorizing about the roots music scene in Toronto, Whiteley adds, "I think (roots) is the first music a lot of people fall in love with, but maybe they think it’s too simple and try and go off and find other things. Then at a certain time they come back to their roots."
It is clear that roots music, and musical roots run deep for the Ontario-based folk-country-bluegrass artist, especially when you consider her family background.
Her father Chris is a well-known Canadian musician (and one half of the Whiteley Brothers) while mandolin-whiz brother Dan is a former member of bluegrass group Heartbreak Hill, along with Jenny herself. Her husband Joey Wright is an accomplished guitarist and Jenny Whiteley Band member. All three are featured on her latest album Hopetown.
What’s more, when she tours out west this month to promote the new album, Whiteley will be accompanied by her husband, 17-month-old daughter Lila (who has been known to dance along on stage) and, in the role of roadie and babysitter, Whiteley’s Mom.
As her career continues to grow, family members remain involved, but Whiteley has been independently able to nurture her own roots in Canada’s music scene.
"They leave me alone about career stuff," she says. "We used to talk about it more, but I found it kind of frustrating. You don’t want to talk shop all the time."
Over the years, Whiteley has established herself as one of Canada’s top up-and-coming singer-songwriters, bursting out of the gate with her Juno. And perhaps it’s her life-long learning in the music industry that has kept her grounded between releases.
"There is that thing that often happens to people when they have a successful solo CD," she says. "You spend your whole career working up to your first CD, then within a year-and-a-half you have to put out a second one. So you fold under the pressure, or you end up putting on songs that really aren’t worthy of being recorded."
But despite the critical acclaim she received from her debut, she refused to let high expectations force the release of her sophomore project before it was ready.
"I took four years to make the album, not that I was working on it for four years straight, but because I had all that time, I knew it was going to be strong," she says.
Produced by multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire Steve Dawson, Hopetown contains a range of sounds, from the Gord Downie-esque "Burning of Atlanta," to the rollicking "Hallelujah Haircut" (co-written with Fred Eaglesmith) and the bittersweet country ballad "I Know How to Say Goodbye," but for the most part, Whiteley stays true to her bluegrass and folk roots. And when your roots run as deep as hers, why wouldn’t you? |
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