Review Text
When they were talented teenagers, full of piss and vinegar and full of themselves, Joe Whiting and Mark Doyle met and set their sights on making it in the music business. They were going to be America's Jagger and Richards, the most famous rock and rollers in the world. While that level of superstardom has eluded Doyle and Whiting, 40 years later they are still making music that matters, adding maturity and depth to their repertoire without sacrificing the swagger. In various solo and occasional joint efforts since the lamented 1973 demise of Jukin' Bone, they have demonstrated their proficiency in blues, r'n'b, country, jazz and instrumental rock, expanding their songwriting and instrumental abilities. On The Truth, their first joint album of new material since 1986, they utilize all of those elements and more to build on the rock'n'roll foundation that brought them together originally. Recorded over four months in early 2007, the 12 songs on The Truth are alternately poignant and clever, humorous and wistful, covering the distance between expectations and reality and mindful that, in the long run, things are never as huge as they might initially appear. It includes unbridled rockers such as "Door #3," "Drive," and "Juke Joint" (a tribute to club owners!) and some that branch out with rockabilly ("21st Century Spin"), jazz ("Out from Under Me"), country ("I Died 1,000 Times") and James Brown funk ("Bad Stuff"). Just as the mean, slinky "She's the Baddest One" shows that these old boys can still get down with the best of them, the atmospheric "Just Around the Corner" and the ballad "Heartbeat" prove Doyle and Whiting are still challenging themselves to make better music all the time. Uplifting but not didactic, The Truth offers none, only an affirmation that the quest continues and the fire remains. Forty years later, there's no question Doyle and Whiting have made it big in the music business. Here's The Truth: Not "what if?" but what is. --Mike Greenstein ''The Truth": It's Magic - Stars Magazine, 5/3/07 Put Central New York music stars Joe Whiting and Mark Doyle in the studio together and something magical happens. Still. And again. "The Truth" marks singer Whiting and guitarist/keyboardist Doyle's first CD of new material together in 21 years. They've still got the mean chops that made their collaboration so special in the 1970s with the bands Free Will and Jukin' Bone, and in the 1980s with The Doyle-Whiting Band. Whiting can snarl out a line with hip confidence, as in "She's The Baddest One." Doyle can fire out a guitar lick as juicy and steamy as an August noon in the South, as he does in "21st Century Spin." In 2007, in fact, all of the wisdom they've accumulated since then makes this union even sweeter. They combine for love ballad "Heartbeat" that's part pain, part joy and totally spellbinding. They churn out tasty country chords in "I Died a Thousand Times" that'll put a bounce in every step. They party in hot rock style on "Juke Joint." It's obvious they relished every second of making music together on this dozen-song CD, from the songwriting to the recording to the thought of sharing the common bonds of talent and desire to make great music. On the title cut, Whiting sings, "Seems I spend my life, caught between wrong and right, searching for the light called the truth." Doyle accompanies his vocals with haunting, swampy guitar work. Goes to show you, "The Truth" can hurt and feel good at the same time. - Mark Bialczak.
