Jenny Whiteley and Joey Wright at Belong

Jeff Green | Dec 04, 2024

The Frontenac Folk Club presented its third intimate concert at Belong Sharbot Lake last Friday, in front of an enthusiastic audience who came out to see two musicians who have been sort of hiding in plain sight for quite a while.

The couple live about 20 minutes from Sharbot Lake in Elphin (maybe 17 if you take the back way, along the Robertsville Road) where they hold a Bluegrass Camp every summer. Jenny has recorded 5 solo albums, her most recent, “The Original Jenny Whiteley”, in 2017, and Joey has released 4 of his own. His most recent “Country Music” was also released in 2017.

Jonas Bonnetta, who organises the Folk Club with his partner, Caylie Runciman, said it was a no-brainer to book them.

At the show, they performed older and newer songs from their recordings as well as some that have never been released. A number of newer songs are from recording sessions they have completed in recent months on Wolfe Island with producer and musician Jason Mercer, and with a third band member, Julian Brown, in their new trio. They played a number of songs from those recording sessions, which will be collected together in their first joint release, which will come out next year. And it will be a double album, one album in English and one in French.

The concert at Belong was was an opportunityto see them perform together, matching their voices, Joey's ease on both the mandolin and guitar, and letting their combined musical vocabulary roll off of them.

Many in the audience know them well enough to have felt free to heckle every once in a while, that being the nature of a local show.

For some, who were not as familiar with their music, it was a revelation. They play a mix of bluegrass, jazz, country, folk, ballads, all music they have been exploring separately, and together for decades.

What came out in their performance was not only the quality of their musicianship, Jenny on vocals and acoustic guitar on some tunes, and Joey on mandolin, electric and acoustic guitar, but their feel for performance, for allowing themselves to weave through material that they have created over the years, making it all sound as fresh as their new material.

Look for that new recording next spring. It already has a hit single. I'm not sure what the title is, but it's the song of the summer of 2025, and it has its own ear worm to boot, “the radio, the radio”.