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Free Will was a legendary band from Upstate New York who formed in 1968 and signed to RCA Records in 1971. Led by vocalist Joe Whiting and lead guitarist Mark Doyle, the band also featured George Egosarian on second guitar, John DeMaso on bass, and Tom Glaister on drums.
Along with their signing to RCA came a name change, to Jukin' Bone. Under that name they recorded two albums, "Whiskey Woman" and "Way Down East" that were hailed by Creem magazine as seminal classics of 70's hard rock. While signed to RCA, the band toured with ZZ Top, Freddie King, The Allman Brothers, The Kinks, John Mayall, and Three Dog Night, among others. They disbanded acrimoniously in 1973, although Doyle and Whiting went on to record several fine albums on the Blue Wave label.
That should have been the end of the story, but the band was honored at the Syracuse Area Music Awards in 1993, resulting in them playing together for the first time in 25 years. Never fond of the name that their record company gave them (and all the attendant misery that it grew to represent for them), the boys reclaimed their original name, Free Will. They have since gathered together every few years to do major outdoor concerts in Syracuse, and made a live CD that captures the band playing all of its classic material at the top of their form, "Free Will Live."
Joe Whiting and Mark Doyle released a brand new CD of all-original material, "The Truth", in 2007 and are currently out playing dates in support of it.
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