Joe Whyte

"4 Stars. A modern-day troubadour, New York City-based Joe Whyte is a singer-songwriter in the grand tradition of Gordon Lightfoot, Jim Weatherly and Mac Davis. He pens memorable songs that bridge folk, country, pop and soul in a craftsmanlike way, but never do they sound hackneyed or cliched. This six-track mini-album is full of the kind of songs that in the mid-1970s would’ve been covered by everyone from Val Doonican to Waylon Jennings, Gladys Knight to Linda Ronstadt. You’re unlikely to hear these songs covered on the radio today, so I suggest that you root around the internet and seek out this excellent recording. It will bring endless hours of listening pleasure." - Maverick, Jan. 2011
- Maverick Country (UK)

"The King of NYC Americana."
4 of 5 stars. "Joe Whyte's new release, WHEN THE DAY BREAKS, is a slice of
pop-Americana that straddles territory settled in the 70's by pioneers like Gordon Lightfoot and Stephen Stills and currently being reshaped by the likes of the Avett Brothers, Darrell Scott and Bruce Robison. Blending a pop songwriter's instinct for precision & hook with the warmth & authenticity in storytelling that are the trademarks of folk and country, Whyte rescues the much maligned genre and gives it beauty and depth" - Twangnation
- Twangnation

"Joe Whyte is really very good at what he does, his rootsy Americana/folk is beautifully executed...'This City Is Alive' (is) solemn yet tinged with hope, it sets the bar high and confirms that Whyte will be a force in this genre. 'Off To War', with it’s strong Nashville harmonies, reminds me of Desire-era Dylan which is no bad thing. Everything you’d expect from a record of this type is there, subtle guitar, haunting harmonica and melancholic, occasionally sentimental lyrics, all pulled together by Whyte’s strong voice." - For Folk's Sake

- For Folk's Sake

“He has a particularly beautiful voice and a great set of musicians in his group...his beautiful, passionate and expressive voice soars with great expression. At times his voice especially reminds me of early Ryan Adams and the British singer Teddy Thompson. The subjects of the songs are a mix of love and love’s sorrow, pain and depression, in short everything necessary to drag the listener in to the stories of the songs. The strongest new songs on this album are the title track Devil in the Details, Out of Tune (with excellent harmony vocals by Kelley McRae) and the rockin’ This Foolish Heart. I suspect that this beautiful disc will surface somewhere in my Best of 2007 list. To succeed in that it must be a tremendous disc, hence this review.” – Rootstime.be (translated from Dutch) – December 2007 - Freddy Celis

"Joe Whyte is the best alt-country artist I've ever heard at Taxi (and I've heard alot)...Great songs. Both thumbs way up...These songs contain the essence of what is good about alt-country music...This is excellent Americana music...This is flat-out killer from head to toe...confident vocals and solid arrangements...there is true artistry at work here...the writing is first-rate...it has an intriguing & appealing vocal character and the band sounds great...really well-written songs with extremely engaging musical arrangements and irresistable melody lines...great voice and well-structured songs with interesting, clever lyrics...Excellent work...these tracks all sound radio-ready. What's not to like??!!" - TAXI - TAXI

Joe Whyte - Devil in the Details (November 26, 2007)

Over the next weeks we will all start seeing the Best of 2007 lists pop up all over the place. While we don't have one of those lists here at AmericanaRoots.com, if we did, Devil in the Details by Joe Whyte would be on mine, likely at the top! This is a flat out great CD. I first heard Joe on our podcast Americana Roots Review and recently received the CD. He's one of those guys who does it all. He wrote all the songs, handles lead vocals, guitar and some mandolin on the disc, and also produced the disc. Heck, he's even a huge Red Sox fan and they just won it all. I hate guys like this...well, just kidding!

The CD is a diverse collection of alt-country, americana tunes that vary from slower stripped down ballads to uptempo full band rockers. More than any other CD I've heard recently, this one had me really focused in on the vocals. In an email Joe mentioned that he really works on the vocals. Whether it is hard work, talent, or both the lyrics really shine on the disc. "This Foolish Heart" starts things off with a bang. The very catchy chorus "this foolish heart can't take a hint, and keeps me comin' round your door." The next cut is "Let Me Down" where the singer laments a lost love and its effect on him, singing "All I seem to play are the minor chords, the major ones won't show their face no more." Whyte uses multiple instrumentation, frequently highlighting mandolin and fiddle as well as pedal steel and piano. He also has great vocal range for a male singer. "Mercury" starts off slowly and with the lyrics "left stranded on your couch, just dreaming about your mouth." As this relationship rises and falls like 'mercury' so does the tempo, picking up in the middle with the addition of mandolin.

My favorite song on the CD is the hard driving "Linden to LA" which starts off with harmonica much like "I Feel Alright" by Steve Earle. I'm sure Joe will get some comparisons to Earle, who also writes his own tunes and skillfully mixes instruments and tempo on his CDs. One of the slower tunes is "No More" which is essentially a vocals/mandolin tune with a nice harmonica/mandolin bridge in the middle of the tune. I imagine this would be a particularly effective tune live. This is followed by the pretty ballad "Out of Tune" on which Joe is joined on harmony vocals by his friend Kelley McRae whose beautiful voice and music I hope to be reviewing on this site shortly. The CD closes with the simple but very nice tune "Ring Around the Moon", another tune that makes me think Joe may have better success with music than with relationships. He sings "I miss your keys, left in the door that let me know you made your way home, and all your shoes thrown in the hall, your favorite ones that made you seem so tall."

Apparently others have lauded Joe's songwriting ability. For the past three years Joe has been a recipient of an ASCAPlus award which is a merit-based songwriting grant from ASCAP. He has also had music placed in the PBS show "Roadtrip Nation". Do yourself a favor, take the 'Desperate Housewives Season 1" DVD off your Christmas list and replace it with Devil in the Details by Joe Whyte. Besides having a great CD to listen to you won't be teased as much by the guys on the bowling team! Check out Joe at www.joewhyte.com.

By Don Zelazny
- Don Zelazny

"...polished compositions that can appeal to the masses without abandoning his roots/Americana fans. Devil in the Details opens with “This Foolish Heart”, the type of song you hear once, and click on the iTunes store and buy. It would be easy to stop there, but Whyte really crafted a strong record. ...in a genre (Alt-country/Americana) that has become over saturated and dull, records like Whyte's songs have so much potential. Instead of another artist struggling to stand out, Whyte's tracks grab your attention with little effort. “No More” is a spare, gospel confessional with some dueling vocals, a few simple strums of a mandolin and a nice harmonica. That being said, it's also the most powerful song on this record...That's something bigger than roots music, which gives me the sneaking suspicion that Joe Whyte might end up being bigger too." – Hero Hill (music blog) – December 2007 - Herohill.com

"**** (4 stars). A significant achievement...The performance standard is high throughout...delicately crafted... Whyte's youthful tenor belies his maturity as a deft writer...it balances musical credibility with populist appeal in a way that is often made to look impossible by less adept artists." - Maverick Country (UK)

With his new album Devil In The Details, New York singer/songwriter Joe Whyte contributes his own slant to the ever-expanding genre of Americana. The album kicks off with "This Foolish Heart," an up-tempo track built on jangly mandolin and fiddle. The music provides a worthy backdrop for Whyte's distinctive voice, which falls somewhere on the spectrum between Jesse Malin and Ryan Adams. In fact, much of the material on Devil is reminiscent of early Whiskeytown. As far as production is concerned, the musical choices were intelligent ones. Whyte is backed by an ensemble of capable musicians (I counted 14 in the liner notes) who contribute various sounds to an album of consistent quality, and Whyte navigates confidently through songs with an assuredness that never approaches pretense. Lyrically, Whyte relies on old stand-by's, or what I like call "relational dysfunction and black widowisms." In other words, he writes a lot of songs about screwed up relationships and soul-sucking women. On "This Foolish Heart," Whyte muses "From the look of those scars and the gun you're waving/ one of us won't be leaving here alive." While many of the songs are up-tempo sing-a-longs, Whyte provides listeners with respite on slower songs like "Out Of Tune" and "Ring Around The Moon." Ultimately, the album is a cohesive collection of alt. country pearls that shimmer with simplicity and effectiveness. Devil In The Details will be available for purchase on October 16, and you can purchase Joe's last album The Lower 48 on iTunes. - Royce Wagner - Captain Obvious

"**** (4 stars)! What a damn good album this is! Whyte has put together a collection of songs that stick with you from the very first time you hear them. He is, in our
opinion, the most promising artist of the near future. Buy it immediately! - CTRL.ALT.COUNTRY, Jan. 2008 (translated from Dutch)
- Ctrl.Alt.Country

"I want to hear more...a little reminiscent of Ryan Adams, which is pretty stratospheric company...I think Joe Whyte is the sh*t...the guy’s got it going on from the writing perspective...he sounds fantastic. Check him out!" – Ray Randall - Ray Randall

"Joe Whyte is going to make history with this album, and you heard it here first...Impresses from the start...he launches himself straight into the circle of promising singer-songwriters who we simply have to keep our eye on. A must-buy album!!!" - ROOTSVILLE.BE, Feb. 2008 (translated from Dutch)
- Rootsville.be

"I just put it on and already I’m loving it! Excellent stuff...I really must play more tracks from this album. It really is very good indeed." - Tom Fahey, AMERICANA
OK (Scotland)
- Americana OK (Scotland)

"I just put it on and already I’m loving it! Excellent stuff...I really must play more tracks from this album. It really is very good indeed." - Tom Fahey, AMERICANA
OK (Scotland)
- Americana OK (Scotland)