Freddie White

Freddie White ranks among Ireland’s leading modern singer-songwriters. He helped establish Scullion, the Fake, and the Freddie White Band, yet he has kept pushing into fresh sonic territory on his own. Hot Press singled out his “left-field sense of humor and sophisticated lyrics,” and www.findthefun.com called him “one of Ireland’s prime underground eclectic performers.” Born in Cobh, County Cork, White grew up in a household steeped in music: his father handled piano, mandolin, concertina, and guitar, while his mother performed with a jazz combo. A guitar arrived as a Christmas present when he turned thirteen; he quickly mastered it and began playing in school and neighborhood groups. After finishing his studies he spent time in London, refining his craft by busking in the Underground. He came back to Cork in 1974 and relocated to Dublin the following year. There he teamed with Philip King and Sonny Cordell to launch the short-lived trad-rock outfit Scullion. Once that band dissolved he started the Fake. The group earned the tag “one of the best Irish bands of the late ’70s” and issued a lone single, “Down on Main” b/w “Green Light.” In 1978 White assembled the Freddie White Band; together they gained wider notice by supporting Eric Clapton on his English dates. He also sustained a parallel solo career. His first album under his own name, Live on Tour, captured performances from his stint opening for Clannad. The eclectic set mixed jazz-pop classics from Fats Waller and Jerome Kern, folk-pop material by Randy Newman and Guy Clark, and an idiosyncratic take on Frank Zappa’s “Po-Jama People.” Do You Do, his second solo release, appeared in 1981 and included his version of Zappa’s “Dirty Love.” On the 1985 album Long Distance Runner White began writing his own material, co-authoring the hit single “Frozen Heart” with Johnny Duhan. Later records centered on original compositions. My Country, issued in 1999, presented songs he wrote with his wife, Ann O’Sullivan, drawing on poems by her late brother, rover and poet Don O’Sullivan.