Jeff White (born 1957) is American bluegrass guitarist/mandolinist, songwriter, record producer and sound mixer. Jeff White has performed and produced albums with many artists including:

Alison Krauss Alison Maria Krauss (born July 23, 1971) is an American bluegrass-country singer and musician. She entered the music industry at an early age, competing in local contests by the age of 8 and recording for the first time at 14. She signed with ...

Vince Gill Vincent Grant Gill (born April 12, 1957) is an American country music singer, songwriter and musician. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman of the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s and as a solo artist ...

The Chieftains The Chieftains are a traditional Irish folk band formed in Dublin in 1962, by Paddy Moloney, Seán Potts and Michael Tubridy. Their sound, which is almost entirely instrumental and largely built around uilleann pipes, has become synonymous wi ...

, Lyle Lovett, Tim O'Brien, The Travelin' McCourys,

Michael Cleveland Michael Cleveland (born September 18, 1980) is an American bluegrass fiddle player. Early life Cleveland was born in Henryville, Indiana. He was born completely blind and a childhood ear infection caused him to lose 80% of his hearing in one ...

and The Earls Of Leicester. White won the

57th Annual Grammy Awards The 57th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 8, 2015, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The show was broadcast live by CBS at 5:00 p.m. PST ( UTC−8). Rapper LL Cool J hosted the show for the fourth consecutive time ...

, for Best Bluegrass Album with The Earls of Leicester. One of Jeff's key mentors is award-winning fiddler Michael Cleveland. Jeff and Michael have earned four

International Bluegrass Music Awards The International Bluegrass Music Awards is an award show for bluegrass music presented by the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA). Awards are voted based on professional membership in the IBMA. Award winners 2021 award winners Th ...

for Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year. Jeff produced several of Michael Cleveland's albums. Jeff has toured with banjo picking Earl Scruggs and Louise Scruggs. Jeff White has produced and released four solo albums: in 1996 ''The White Album'', in 1999 ''The Broken Road'', in 2013 ''Renegade Revelations'' and in 2016 ''Right Beside You''.

Biography

Jeff White was born in Syracuse, New York; at 13 his family moved to

North Manchester, Indiana North Manchester is a town in Chester Township, Wabash County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 6,112 at the 2010 census. Geography North Manchester is located at (41.003951, -85.772573). According to the 2010 census, North ...

. Jeff's first interest in bluegrass and country music came from seeing the

Hee Haw ''Hee Haw'' is an American television variety show featuring country music and humor with the fictional rural "Kornfield Kounty" as the backdrop. It aired first-run on CBS from 1969 to 1971, in syndication from 1971 to 1993, and on TNN from 1 ...

television show that started in 1971. Jeff started to play guitar in high school and joined the high school bluegrass band, the "Suburban Grass". The band played at schools, coffeehouses and then local bars. In college Jeff discovered his love for bluegrass from a dorm mate that played mandolin. Jeff's dorm mate introduced Jeff to

Doc Watson Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson (March 3, 1923 – May 29, 2012) was an American guitarist, songwriter, and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues, and gospel music. Watson won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. W ...

, a pioneer of bluegrass music. Jeff studied

Dan Crary Dan Crary ''(aka Deacon Dan Crary)'' was born September 29, 1939 in Kansas City, Kansas and is an American bluegrass guitarist. He helped re-establish flatpicked guitar as a prominent soloing bluegrass instrument. Crary is an innovator of the flat ...

, Norman Blake,

Don Reno Donald Wesley Reno (February 21, 1926Trischka, Tony, "Don Reno", ''Banjo Song Book'', Oak Publications, 1977, – October 16, 1984) was an American bluegrass and country musician, best known as a pioneering banjo and guitar player who pa ...

Bill Monroe William Smith "Bill" Monroe (; September 13, 1911 – September 9, 1996) was an American mandolinist, singer, and songwriter, who created the bluegrass music genre. Because of this, he is often called the " Father of Bluegrass". The genre take ...

, Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs,

Foggy Mountain Boys Flatt and Scruggs were an American bluegrass duo. Singer and guitarist Lester Flatt and banjo player Earl Scruggs, both of whom had been members of Bill Monroe's band, the Bluegrass Boys, from 1945 to 1948, formed the duo in 1948. Flatt and Sc ...

and

The Stanley Brothers The Stanley Brothers were an American bluegrass duo of singer-songwriters and musicians, made up of brothers Carter Stanley (August 27, 1925 – December 1, 1966) and Ralph Stanley (February 25, 1927 – June 23, 2016). Ralph and Carter perform ...

. After listening to and learning from the classics, Jeff studied the new bluegrass artists such as

Sam Bush Charles Samuel Bush (born April 13, 1952) is an American mandolinist who is considered an originator of progressive bluegrass music. In 2020, he was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame as a member of New Grass Reviva ...

and JD Crowe. The next band Jeff joined was The Johnsons. Jeff White and The Johnsons came in 1st place in the Best Bluegrass Band in America contest, put on by KFC in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

in 1979. Winning the contest earned them a free recording session in RCA's Nashville studio on

Music Row Music Row is a historic district located southwest of downtown Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Widely considered the heart of Nashville's entertainment industry, Music Row has also become a metonymous nickname for the music industry as a w ...

. Tom Collins, an album producer with Real Music City Records, helped them make two singles. In 1981 Jeff White and The Johnsons where named the Best New Bluegrass Band. The Johnsons Band was made up of: Dave Johnson, Dan Anderson, Melody Johnson and Jeff White. White departed the group and returned to Indiana to attend graduate school. But, Jeff returned to bluegrass and moved to

Beanblossom, Indiana Beanblossom, also spelled Bean Blossom, is an unincorporated community in Jackson Township, Brown County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The town was named for the nearby Beanblossom Creek, which was in turn named for a person whose surname was B ...

, there he joined up with a new and upcoming bluegrass fiddler

. In 1987, Jeff join Alison Krauss band the

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

. Union Station recorded two albums while he was a member: in 1989 ''Two Highways'' and in 1990 ''I've Got That Old Feeling''. A seaside resort in Japan wanted a bluegrass music band, so Jeff joined other bluegrass artists:

Scott Vestal Scott Vestal is an American banjoist, songwriter and luthier, known for his innovative approach to playing and designing the banjo. Biography Early years The older of two children, Scott Vestal was raised in Duncan, Oklahoma in a musical fam ...

, Jeff Autry, Dave Peters, and Gena Britt in 1991 and play for a year. Jeff moved to Nashville in 1992, he played bluegrass at the Station Inn with Tim O'Brien. Jeff broke into professional music when

took Jeff on the road with

George Jones George Glenn Jones (September 12, 1931 – April 26, 2013) was an American country musician, singer, and songwriter. He achieved international fame for his long list of hit records, including his best-known song " He Stopped Loving Her Today", ...

and Conway Twitty. Vince Gill had Jeff sing ''When I Call Your Name'' at the Grand Ole Opry. Vince Gill got Jeff a job playing with Lyle Lovett. Jeff's next job was playing with the traditional Irish band formed in Dublin

. Looking to cross Celtic music with bluegrass and country,

Paddy Moloney Paddy Moloney ( ga, Pádraig Ó Maoldomhnaigh; 1 August 1938 – 12 October 2021) was an Irish musician, composer, and record producer. He co-founded and led the Irish musical group the Chieftains, playing on all of their 44 albums. He was part ...

looked to Jeff to help with the new sound. Jeff toured, performed and helped produce the 2002 The Chieftains album '' Down the Old Plank Road: The Nashville Sessions'' and in 2003 '' Further Down the Old Plank Road''. Jeff's next project was working with bluegrass fiddle player

on his albums. Jeff is also a songwriter and has written songs for The Del McCoury Band, Alison Krauss, Dan Tyminski, Dale Ann Bradley, Stringdusters and Dan Tyminski. Jeff sometimes plays guitar with the Nashville bluegrass band The Travelin' McCourys. Jeff currently plays mandolin for The Earls of Leicester, a band that plays tribute to Flatt and Scruggs. Jeff is married to country music

fiddler A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, the ...

, guitarist, singer and songwriter, Laura Weber White. Jeff and Laura live in Nashville and were married on March 12, 2017.

Discography

Jeff White's discography:

Albums

Solo Albums Albums *Albums Jeff has performed on and/or helped produce:

Performances

*Selected: Tours, Performances and Events.

Awards

Selected Jeff White Awards:

External links

*
The Chieftains Official websiteyoutube.com, Jeff White, "Run Little Rabbit Run", March 24, 2016youtube.com, Jeff White, "I Never Knew", 2012

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Jeff 1957 births American male singer-songwriters American country singer-songwriters Living people 21st-century American singers American mandolinists 21st-century American composers American bluegrass musicians Record producers from Tennessee Production sound mixers 21st-century American male singers The Earls of Leicester (band) members Alison Krauss & Union Station members The Chieftains members Lyle Lovett and His Large Band members