Effron White

Artist Information

Biography

Effron White, from Fayetteville, Arkansas, is not just another
singer-songwriter. When you hear Effron, you are immediately struck by the uniqueness of his songs and their delivery. His gravelly vocal quality is reminiscent at times of Tom Waits, John Prine, or Bob Dylan; yet, there's a personal earthiness that drives the emotional truth of his songs right into your heart.

As a songwriter, Effron draws his influences from those legends of the past who are looked upon as poets as much as songwriters, such as, Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, John Prine, and Guy Clark. His skills as a singer/songwriter have resulted in nationwide recognition. In 2004, Effron won the coveted "New Folk" Award at the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival. He has also been honored as the Northwest Arkansas Music Award's (NAMA) "Best Folk Artist", and his song, "Yankee Dime" was voted "Best Original Song" at the 2002 Ozark Music Awards. After being voted "Best Singer-Songwriter" 2 years in a row at the Northwest Arkansas Music Awards (2006 and 2007), he was inducted into NAMA's Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2010 his song "Long Haul" earned him a feature in AMERICAN SONGWRITER MAGAZINE's "Lyric Spotlight" in the Mar/Apr issue. "Long Haul" went on to achieve First Place in the Americana/Folk catagory in the 18th Annual Billboard Song Contest.

Effron has been averaging 75 - 100 engagements annually, hence his distinction as one of the "hardest-working musicians in Northwest Arkansas".

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COMPLETE LIST OF ACCOLADES:


2011 - BILLBOARD SONG CONTEST, 1ST Place, Ameicana/Folk
2010 - GREAT AMERICAN SONG CONTEST, Top 5 Winner, Country
2010 - AMERICAN SONGWRITER MAGAZINE'S LYRIC CONTEST, 3rd Place and "Lyric Spotlight" interview.
2008 - NORTHWEST ARKANSAS MUSIC AWARDS, Hall of Fame
2007 - WOODY GUTHRIE SONG CONTEST, 4TH Place
2007- NORTHWEST ARKANSAS MUSIC AWARDS “Best Singer-Songwriter”
2006- NORTHWEST ARKANSAS MUSIC AWARDS "Best Singer-Songwriter"
2004- KERRVILLE FOLK FESTIVAL "New Folk Competition for Emerging
Songwriters", Winner
2003- OZARK FOLK FESTIVAL Folk Song Contest, 3rd Place
2003- OKLAHOMA SONGWRITERS AND COMPOSERS ASSOC. (OSCA) One Plus One Song
Contest, 1st Place
2002- OZARK MUSIC AWARDS "Best Original Song" ('Yankee Dime")
2002- NORTHWEST ARKANSAS MUSIC AWARDS "Best Folk Artist"
2001- GREAT AMERICAN SONGWRITING CONTEST "Honor Award"
2001- UNISONG INTERNATIONAL SONGWRITING CONTEST Finalist
2001- OKLAHOMA SONGWRITERS AND COMPOSERS ASSOC. (OSCA) One Plus One Song
Contest, 2nd Place & Honorable Mention
2001- COOCH MUSIC SONG CONTEST Honorable Mention
2000- OKLAHOMA SONGWRITERS AND COMPOSERS ASSOC. (OSCA) One Plus One Song
Contest, 1st Place
2000- WOODY GUTHRIE SONGWRITING COMPETITION, 3rd Place
2000- ENORMOUS RECORDS Song Contest, Grand Prize Winner
1999- CHRIS AUSTIN SONGWRITING CONTEST (MERLEFEST), 2nd Place (Country)
1998- WALNUT VALLEY FESTIVAL (WINFIELD, KS), "NewSongs Showcase" Selectee

"...but the best award is when someone tells you you've touched their
heart with a song." -Effron

CD’s:

“DAY IN THE SUN”, 2000 Produced by Emily Kaitz
The debut album by Effron white features many of the finest musicans in
Arkansas, including: Ezra Idlet (Trout Fishing in America), Still on the
Hill, and Susan Shore.

"With well-crafted songs and an inviting voice, White clearly belongs in
the spotlight...A sunny and bright debut!" -- Lynn McLachlin, "Rambles"
online magazine.


“YANKEE DIME”, 2004 Produced by Fred Bogert
"I've worked on about 3000 recordings over the years, and "Yankee Dime" is one of the very few I actually listen to myself!" -- Fred Bogert, Producer (Trout Fishing in America, Vassar Clements)

"Yankee Dime" includes performances by Keith Grimwood, bass player for
Trout Fishing in America, and Robert Bowlin, Bill Monroe's last fiddle
player.


“PARADISO LOCO”, 2007 (release date, February 7, 2007) Produced by The
East Side Flash

“THIS CD MUST

Instrumentation

Emily Kaitz - Bass/Backup Vocals
Richard Hartrick - Fiddle/Mandolin

Discography

Day in the Sun - CD (released in 2000)
Yankee Dime - CD (released in 2004)
Paradiso Loco - CD (released in 2007)
The High I.Q. Compilation - (released in 2006 by Purdue University Press
Ox Cart Inc. "Music from the Boston Mountains" Compilation - (released in 2005 by Ox Cart Inc.)
The Omni Center's Peace Songbook and CD Compilation - (released in 2002 by the Omni Center for Peace)
Music for Cataholics Compilation - (released in 2005, a benefit for Alley Cat Allies)

Links

• Facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter
• Reverbnation

Audio

• Long Haul
  Listen   Download
• Nothing to Lose
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• Yankee Dime
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• Texas Heaven
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• Transcontinental Railroaded
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• If I Fall
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• 3 Chords of Love (work tape)
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• Black Window
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• Right Next to Nothing
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• On the Road Somewhere
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• Goin' Loco Bein' Local
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• Desirae
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• Misery's Mystique
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• Arkansas Wine
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• Big Northern Murder Ballad
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• Big Blue Tears
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• A Little Bit of Sweet
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Lyrics

• Yankee Dime
• Nothing to Lose
• Black Window
• Right Next to Nothing
• Transcontinental Railroaded
• On the Road Somewhere
• Desirae
• Misery's Mystique
• If I Fall
• A Little Bit of Sweet
• Arkansas Wine
• Built By Men
• No Fairy Tale
• Dream On
• Uncle Phil and Me
• 3 Chords of Love
• Big Blue Tears
• No Fairy Tale
• Long Haul

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• LYRIC SPOTLIGHT - "The Long Haul" [+ Show ]
  

  Lyric Spotlight A Q&A with Lyric Contest 3rd Place Winner Effron White In your AmericanSongspa...Lyric Spotlight
  
  A Q&A with Lyric Contest 3rd Place Winner Effron White
  
  In your AmericanSongspace.com bio, you mention a couple of song placements, one on an Australian TV program and another on Canadian TV. How did those come about, and how did they pan out financially and/or creatively?
  
  I don’t know specifically how those songs got placed. I assume they were just grabbed off the Internet somewhere. I didn’t know anything about it until I received my first ever BMI check for a pretty decent amount. What’s even better is the checks have kept coming.
  
  Can you talk a little about how your song “Long Haul” was fleshed out? Any particular inspiration, or a story behind it?
  
  “Long Haul” was a gift. I was on one of my own long hauls as a part-time traveling troubadour. One morning in a hotel room I grabbed my guitar and started writing these words. In an hour or so I had most of the song, or at least the main idea. When I got home, I tweaked the words and worked out the melodies.
  
  I know nothing really about truckers, trucks, or trucking. But I guess I can relate to driving many hours down some lonely highways to get to a gig. The more I sang the song, the more I realized that that trucker was very much me. And I taught myself something through writing this song. Songs are often like prayers. You write them not necessarily knowing that you’re really asking for something in your life that you’re lacking. In my case, I was feeling a loss for having not told certain people how much they have truly meant to me. “Long Haul” was the catalyst for me getting that part of my life in order before it was too late. I feel the action I took because of the song was the answer to the prayer that I only realized was a prayer through playing it many times over and over.
  
  You put out three albums independently in the past decade. How do you find time to work a day job in picture framing, write and perform songs and promote your self-released albums?
  
  I ask myself those same questions all the time. It does take a lot of effort to balance all those things. On top of all the things you mentioned, I do some art (currently, junk art sculptures) too. And I have a family I have to make some time for. I have often thought how great it would be to not have to go to the day job. But I’m afraid I would not use my time as well then. I’d probably get very little done, I know this because, believe it or not, I waste way too much time now.
  
  Was there a moment of epiphany that you can point to as a prime inspiration, or a signal toward a more serious-minded musical focus?
  
  I talk about wasting time. There was a period in my adult life where I was really just being lazy. It reached the point where I just couldn’t stand the thought of throwing my life away. So, I got serious about music.
  
  Has the festival circuit proven to be fertile ground to get your songs out to people?
  
  I think it has. I just got back from the first annual 30A Songwriters Festival down in northwest Florida. The festival sold out and I was able to get my songs out to some very receptive audiences. I sold a few CDs and handed out lots of free bumper stickers (my most popular sticker being the one that reads, “EFFRON WHITE? EFFIN RIGHT!”)
  

• Gruff is Good for White [+ Show ]
  

  Gruff is Good for White By MALCOLM MAYHEW SPECIAL TO THE STAR-TELEGRAM FORT WORTH -- Nanci Gri...Gruff is Good for White
  By MALCOLM MAYHEW
  SPECIAL TO THE STAR-TELEGRAM
  
  FORT WORTH -- Nanci Griffith wasn't the only multifarious folk singer playing downtown Friday night. Across the street from Bass Hall, where Griffith performed, Effron White spun his own yarns at McDavid Studio.
  
  White is part of an Arkansas musical community that calls its music "Ozark skittle." The name is a play on skiffle, a blend of folk, jazz and blues that dates from the early 1900s. Skittle, to such practitioners as White, Eddie Glenn and the Ozone Players, is skiffle for the 21st century.
  
  White proved why he's skittle's ringleader: With just one guitar, he proficiently ran through a variety of sounds and styles, from country to jazz to blues. Like Griffith, he's restless musically, and like her, he has a voice and vocal style so oddly unique that you'll either fall in love with it or be immediately disgusted.
  
  His voice was sometimes smooth and melodic like early John Prine, but more often, on songs such as Yankee Dime and Town Within the Town, he brought to mind the Cookie Monster-like grunt of Tom Waits. That's the raw attraction of folk music, though; even those with the most seemingly unappealing voices often find a fan base. Ask Griffith.
  

• "Paradiso Loco" CD Review [+ Show ]
  

  Texicana Jukebox @ misslana.com Paradiso Loco Effron White Sticker Freak Records Effron has ap...Texicana Jukebox @ misslana.com
  
  Paradiso Loco
  Effron White
  Sticker Freak Records
  Effron has apparently picked up a number of awards at various songwriters events, of which by listening to Paradiso Loco, one can see why. In comparison with younger artists, maturity is found here with a wide spectrum of subject matter being covered. He opens with an odd piece, "Big Northern Murder", a ballad about murder by tying a woman to the railroad tracks. Interesting lines incur such as, "No chains heavier than guilt and despair" and "I never knew what a man was capable of til I let myself break the laws of love". One quickly can see the maturity I mentioned.
  "Black Window" (track 3), gives depth in feeling both musically and lyrically as he conveys a broken heart and wanting her back again. Effron, like so many others, has been compared to the likes of Dylan and Guy Clark, and I hear those undertones in his music. Wonderful musicianship ala banjo is found in track 1 and again on track 4, "Angel", but also found throughout the CD.
  Contained within the tracks is really nice dobro, banjo, guitar and, of course, bass and drums. "Arkansas Wine (track 5) tells of the serenity found on the porch swing with his gal, in comparison with Dallas where, "The street couldn't feel me shakin, the neon didn't know I was aching, but without you I was just faking". Stories of pain, foolish one night stands, murder, the clowns around town, and not being able to keep a good man down like track 7, "You Can't Kill A Man Like That". The aforementioned clowns around town is found in track 9, "Going Loco Bein' Local", a good little country rocker.
  If you are looking for good stories about life itself combined with good music you can find it here. This one is worth far more than just a listen, for when it comes to music, this one does glisten.
  
  Daniel J. Hinnebusch, August 2007
  
  Link to this review: http://www.misslana.com/texicana_jukebox.htm
  
  
  

• Hitting The N.W. Florida 30A Songwriters Festival by Jeep… [+ Show ]
  

  Hitting The N.W. Florida 30A Songwriters Festival by Jeep… by Mitchum Verte (submitted 2011-01-...Hitting The N.W. Florida 30A Songwriters Festival by Jeep…
  by Mitchum Verte
  (submitted 2011-01-15)
  
  
  Hitting The N.W. Florida 30A Songwriters Festival by Jeep…
  
  
  It's probably prettier than it should be, It's a lot smaller than you'd expect, and even with the somewhat over-the-top retro-Victorian doll-houses, condos and resorts that litter the beaches, it somehow seems to work.
  
  
  The 30A Singer/Songwriters Festival of Northwest Florida, is an anomaly in a sea of otherwise gritty musical events that usually nuance the national touring stage. This is a festival perhaps best defined by what it is not. Absent is the double-barrel branding of the Lollapalooza-Lilith-fair type of event, with writhing teens stacked against stages, and amped-up performers performing sophomoric political discontent. No, this is not that, but rather something far more surprising, a legitimate festival that is actually about music. An intimate series of venues that stretch up a spell of 2 or 3 miles, along arguably one of Florida's prettiest two-lane coastal roads. From fish-restaurants, to coffee-houses, and small Grecian styled outdoor amphitheaters (you sit on the lawn), the venues are quaint, unpretentious, and seemingly devoid of artificiality - you walk in, you sit, you listen, and the performers are glad you're there - it's a perfect recipe for a successful event.
  
  
  At the farthest end of the festival, this past Friday, in a small wine-house, I found one such performer playing along side his pal. The bar was neatly filled with intent faces, and loosely strung chairs and sofas made the scene feel even more relaxed than it already was. Up on a stage, that hung perilously close to being halfway out onto the road, stood Jeep Rosenberg and Effron White. The two men had just finished a song and were in the midst of a conversation with some bar patrons. It was an easy give and go, there was no sycophantic behavior, no sloppy drunks yelling "Freebird," just a simple exchange about life and music. After a few brief moments both men returned to what they came to do…
  
  
  The music was instantly riveting. Not because it was catchy, toe-tapping, or titillating, but because it made you listen. You knew right off the bat you weren't' just getting a tune - but a poem as well - a musical 2-for-1. Not necessarily Dylan-esque, or Cash-esque, or country-esque, or any kind of -esque, It was simply something American, something in between, and something on the outside. As you watched the faces in the crowd, you could sense the pie-eyed concentration as people strained not to miss a word, as the storyteller sung his tale. The music was rich, full of context, and entertaining, and everyone in the room knew it.
  
  The 30A Songwriters Festival may be small in scope, but like the area in which it resides, it's anything but small when it comes to originality, uniqueness, and creativity. The talent is first-rate, the audiences are authentic, and the location is, well… it's January, you're just dang lucky to be anywhere where it's not snowing.
  
  
  
  About the Author
  
  Mr. Verte is an international freelance correspondent who has written for Paris Match, The Trib, La Posta, The Toronto Star and a host of other international publications. He currently resides in Canada and the Northern Panhandle of Florida.
  
  GoArticles.com © 2011, All Rights Reserved.
  
  
  
  Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines
  whereby the original author's information and copyright must be included.
  

Setlist

30 minutes to 2 hours of original material; 3-4 hours of cover material. I fashion my setlist to suit the particular venue and length of the set(s).


SOME OFTEN-REQUESTED ORIGINALS:
Yankee Dime
Biscuits and Gravy
Black Window
Right Next to Nothing
Arkansas Wine
Terrors of the Neighborhood
And the Tears Turn On
Nothing to Lose
Cattitude
If I Fall
Fate Won't You Smile On Me Awhile
Transcontinental Railroaded
Texas Heaven
A Little Bit of Sweet
On the Road Somewhere

SOME CREATIVE COVERS:
Pancho and Lefty - Townes Van Zandt
I've Been Everywhere - Geoff Mack
Don't Speak in English-Chip Taylor/Carrie Rodriguez
Wilder Than Her - Fred Eaglesmith
Ramblin' Round - Woody Guthrie
White Freightliner - Townes Van Zandt
I Lost It - Lucinda Williams
Pico de Gallo - Emily Kaitz/Marilyn Cain
Mr. Bojangles - Jerry Jeff Walker
L.A. Freeway - Guy Clark
The Times They Are A'Changin - Bob Dylan
You're a Big Girl Now - Bob Dylan
Carmelita - Warren Zevon
Wilder Than Her - Fred Eaglesmith
I Like Trains - Fred Eaglesmith
Many More - Minnie Moore

Basic Requirements

Calendar