Jenny Whiteley got an early start playing music with her father and uncle, Chris and Ken Whiteley, who formed the popular Original Sloth Band in the heyday of Toronto folk. Throughout Whiteley’s childhood, she and her brother Dan were along for the ride at countless concerts and festivals, and before long they were singing and playing washtub and washboard alongside their dad and uncle in The Junior Jug Band. Following a brief brush with academia to study anthropology at Concordia in Montreal, Whiteley returned to Toronto in her early twenties where she taught herself to play guitar and pursued her song writing career in earnest.
After several years performing and recording with bluegrass band Heartbreak Hill, Whiteley recorded and co-produced her first solo effort, a self-titled album in 2000. This album was followed by Hopetown in 2003, Dear in 2006, Forgive or Forget in 2009, all of which earned glowing reviews from critics in North America and Europe. Her first two records also have the distinction of being JUNO Award winners.
Whiteley and her musician husband Joey Wright reside in rural Eastern Ontario, with their two daughters. She dedicates her new record The Original Jenny Whiteley to her father, Chris.