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The cover of Terry Garland's Whistling in the Dark is an endearing drawing of a man walking down the street of a small town at night and whistling. It portrays a contemplative country man, intriguing the consumer to take a listen to the music of a simple soul. The only problem with this image is that it doesn't represent Garland's music at all. Instead, what lies within the album case is a C.D. full of mixed messages and an average blues sound.

Terry Garland wants us to know he's tough. But this rough exterior is forced-sounding and strange. For example, in his first song, Get Bitchy I just couldn't take it seriously. Call me crazy but the use of the word "Bitchy" might be a compliment to some women, but when it comes to a guy it's usually taken as an insult. "Get tough" or "Get raw" are just a few other options he could have explored. I know that words don't always have one meaning and gender but based on social norms this song sounds a little seedy. It's not something a tough guy would want to listen or sing along to. In fact, throughout the album I noticed that while Garland's lyrics can be inventive, they also have the potential to put people off. In the song Memo to Jo Garland's first words are: "I got the world; I got it by the nuts." This was a little weird but I kept listening, hoping that in the context of the song, the humor of that sentence might shine through. But, sure enough, the creepy vibe I got was validated a few verses later when he sang, "She can make me stand up on end. It's the kinda thing that I really recommend." These lyrics are awkward, unnecessary, and downright offensive in this day and age.

A few songs later, in Too Much Blood, Garland is listing off bad happenings in the world (where, for example, he has some hatin’ words for Osama). In this song he‘s obviously not condoning these terrible things, hence the title of the song. He is actually quite passionate on the chorus where he sings, "I've had enooooough, of all this bloooood," and it's obviously a very serious song. However, based on some of the lyrics he‘s not really taking them seriously either. He sings, "Daddy's goin' to prison, he's a tad incestuous." I really hope that Garland just doesn't get that the word “tad” here makes it sound like a joke. However, that is how it sounds, whatever the intention. You have to cover themes so horrid with a little more respect. You’ve got to make a really good joke to make something as horrible as incest sound funny. To top off the odd and sexist sentiments Garland's voice tends to warble, making it a skin crawling experience. So all of this evidence was confusing, but what was even more confusing was the fact that there were some genuine sounding songs in between the socially uncomfortable ones.

I really warmed up to a few songs on this album and generally liked the sound even when the lyrics were iffy. Garland has a good band and he knows how to arrange a good blues song. And the lyrics aren't always bad. When You See Their Eyes is actually very sentimental and socially conscious. He doesn't define who he's singing about but it's obvious that he has compassion for the people in the world who are down on their luck. The song Without You is also quite nice because it's simple but also pretty and sad. Even though there are a few good songs and he's a good musician, this album doesn't provide anything different...or at least nothing different from a positive perspective.

The title Whistling in the Dark surely takes on new meaning after one listen. Frankly, Terry Garland's whistling can have an unsettling tone. It's the kind of thing that passers by would probably try to avoid because they aren't sure if they can trust it. Hopefully he will keep working on the stuff that works for him and try to abandon whistling at people from dark places.