The
maestro of quality music
It
was said of the late Marc Bolan that he could have been David Cassidy,
but wanted to be David Bowie. Similarly, and like Johnny Duhan, who
played Draiocht last year, Freddie White’s cult status is founded
on a musical integrity that appears to have gone out of fashion. As
a founder member of Scullion in 1974, he could have had the world at
his feet, yet he chose his own path through the musical minefield and,
more than thirty years on, is still producing some of the finest homegrown
music around.
Born in Cobh, County Cork into a musical family, Freddie earned his
stripes the hard way, busking on the streets of London where, as a nineteen
year old he developed his own unique voice and guitar style. With Philip
King and Sonny Condell, he formed the legendary Scullion and then the
still very highly regarded The Fake, before launching the Freddie White
Band in 1978.
He has been something of an institution on the Irish music scene ever
since, delivering memorable performance after memorable performance
for over thirty years. His shows feature a heady mix of his own evocative,
soulful compositions and highly original interpretations of other people’s
music such as Randy Newman, Tom Waits, John Hiatt and Guy Clark. He
has toured with everyone from Eric Clapton to Clannad and is revered
in the Irish music scene.
His gig at Draiocht on May Day may not be his first at the venue, but
it is a few years since he last appeared and the return is well overdue.
He recalls his last appearance as “a fantastic night,” and
actually confesses to having “lived in Clonsilla for a couple
of years in the early eighties, when it was just a sea of new semi-detached
houses and not much else!”
His new album “Stormy Lullaby” was released in February
to critical acclaim, containing eleven newly-written or previously unrecorded
tracks. So it is hard for him to recreate the full sound on the album
when performing live as a solo artist?
“The problem is not how to recreate the sound of a CD in a live
performance but rather the complete opposite!” he corrects me.
“The problem is how to get the same energy into a cd as is natural
in a live situation. Hence the necessity to employ musicians for the
recording process whereas they are not needed live!”
But does he never get fed up ploughing a lonely furrow? Most of his
contemporaries have moved into ‘normal’ society by now,
steady jobs, regular income and all that. He laughs.
“Playing music to people seems to me the reason for being on this
planet,” he replies unequivocally. “I never get fed up with
that. I may get fed up when the telly doesn't work or when I'm stuck
in traffic or ... but generally I'm a pretty happy individual.”
And may he long continue to be so.
The legend that is Freddie White plays Draiocht’s main auditorium
on Thursday 1st May at 8pm.
Tickets are €20 / €18.
Community Voice, Media
House, Church Avenue, Blanchardstown,
Dublin 15
Phone +353 1 822 1432 - Fax +353 1 640 4444
info@communityvoice.ie
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