Cheryl Wheeler and Kenny White
"75 Septembers," "Aces," "Driving Home," "Estate Sale," " If It Were Up To Me," "Gandhi / Buddha," "When Fall Comes To New England," are just a few of the Cheryl Wheeler songs now played and shared throughout the folk music world. Concert partner Kenny White adds some accompaniment and several beautiful selections of his own. Both artists are very funny.
Brilliant, hysterical performances and beautifully crafted songs. It has always seemed as if there were two Cheryl Wheelers, with fans of the New England songwriter relishing watching the two tussle for control of the mic. There is poet-Cheryl, writer of some of the prettiest, most alluring and intelligent ballads on the modern folk scene. And there is her evil twin, comic-Cheryl, a militant trend defier and savagely funny social critic. The result is a delightful contrast between poet and comic.
“Rare artist…strong poetry, complex melodies, clever wit.” – SingOut!
Cheryl Wheeler has to be seen to be appreciated. Nothing you read and nothing you hear from her albums prepares you for how entertaining a performer she is. If you’re not already familiar with Cheryl, you have probably heard her music. She is very respected as a songwriter by her peers, which can be seen by how many of them record her songs. Cheryl’s songs have been covered by artists as diverse as Dan Seals, Peter Paul & Mary, Kenny Loggins, Garth Brooks, Suzy Bogguss, Melanie, Bette Midler, Maura O’Connell, Sylvia, Kathy Mattea, and Holly Near.
From her albums you can tell that she is a gifted songwriter with a beautiful voice. From other people’s comments about her you learn that she is a natural storyteller with a fantastic sense of humor. But until you see her in person, you never really believe what you’ve been told about her. Interestingly enough, almost half of the songs she performs during her shows have never been recorded!
Cheryl’s first concert was to a captive audience. She found an old toy ukulele in a neighbor’s attic and serenaded her mother who was taking a bath at the time. A year later she got a real ukulele, followed by her first guitar. She learned guitar from a neighbor, who also taught a group of boys. Each week they would get together and play just about any song they could think of for hours on end. Her first public performance was at a Hootenanny when she was 12. She started writing her own songs when she was 17.
Cheryl has never had a “day job,” and her first professional gigs were at the Steak and Ale Restaurant in her home town of Timonium, Maryland. The place only had one PA system; in the middle of her songs you would hear: “Jones, party of four … Jones, party of four.” She finally convinced them to get a second PA system.
She performed at venues around Baltimore and Washington DC before moving to New England in 1976, where she now lives. She tours extensively, often performing solo or with Kenny White, who often opens her shows as well. She appeared as part of the On a Winter’s Night tour, and was part of the Philo 25th Anniversary tour.
Her funny stories between songs reveal her talent for diversity. Each time she tells a story, it will be a little bit different, so even if you’ve heard it before, you still find yourself laughing.
Kenny White
“A scathingly brilliant and entertaining songwriter.” -Dalis Allen, Producer, Kerrville Folk Festival
KENNY WHITE comes to the world of the touring singer-songwriter following a long and successful musical journey. An accomplished pianist, who also performs on guitar, Kenny has now become more known for his clever lyrics. LONG LIST OF PRIORS, his aptly named current album, is the latest collection of original songs: snapshots of the human condition. Audiences often comment that a Kenny White concert moves them to laughter and tears, sometimes within the same song! “If Mark Twain could sing and play piano like a virtuoso, his name would be Kenny White.”, Stu Kuby, The Strand, Hudson Falls, NY. Kenny recently completed an 18-month tour performing his original songs while traveling as the opener for Stephen Stills & Judy Collins, and has toured for many years with Cheryl Wheeler. He is looking forward to returning to the road to perform his own full-length shows.
Born in New York City and raised across the river in Fort Lee, NJ, Kenny White began his career in the 1970s, touring exclusively as the keyboard player for Jonathan Edwards and later with Livingston Taylor, on Linda Ronstadt’s legendary, “Living in the USA” tour.
He became a fixture in the NYC studio scene throughout the 1980s and 1990s, producing and arranging hundreds of commercials for TV and radio, beginning with “The Unsinkable Taste of Cheerios,” nearly seven years of Chevrolet’s “Heartbeat of America” campaign, countless ads for Coca Cola and many others. Commercial work enabled White to direct artists as renowned and varied as Linda Ronstadt, Gladys Knight, Mavis Staples, Ricky Skaggs, and Aaron Neville. White contributed to film soundtracks as writer/musician including Message in a Bottle, Where the Heart Is and four films by Indie-director laureate, John Sayles. Kenny also appears on dozens of recordings of other musicians, including Marc Cohn’s platinum debut.
Whenever he could break free from the recording studios, Kenny would often support other musicians in live concerts. After being hailed by reviewers from the New York Times to the San Francisco Chronicle for his “thrilling” and “unique” piano playing, White chose, in 2001, to devote himself to making his own album, one that not only showcased his talent as a musician, but also as a lyricist. Friends such as Cheryl Wheeler invited White to tour as an opening act on behalf of his first album, UNINVITED GUEST. He also toured as the Special Guest opener for Judy Collins, who signed him to her own Wildflower Records label, releasing SYMPHONY IN 16 BARS in 2005 and NEVER LIKE THIS in 2006. COMFORT IN THE STATIC, released in 2010, landed on many “Favorite Album of the Year” radio lists.
Kenny White’s record producing credits include Shawn Colvin’s Grammy-nominated song, “I Don’t Know Why,” as well as the last four solo CDs for Peter Wolf, formerly with the J. Geils Band, with a new album anticipated for 2022. Their second album, SLEEPLESS was named one of Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” The productions with Wolf, enabled Kenny to work with an array of guest artists including Merle Haggard and Keith Richards.
White’s music has been discovered in the UK and Europe, where he tours annually in the Spring. He was awarded the International Songwriting Award at the Premio Ciampi music festival in Livomo, Italy. And though he has all but given up his days as a sideman, in 2014, he accepted an offer by none other than Tom Jones to play in his ‘soul quartet’ for a sold-out, three-week US tour.
Brilliant, hysterical performances and beautifully crafted songs. It has always seemed as if there were two Cheryl Wheelers, with fans of the New England songwriter relishing watching the two tussle for control of the mic. There is poet-Cheryl, writer of some of the prettiest, most alluring and intelligent ballads on the modern folk scene. And there is her evil twin, comic-Cheryl, a militant trend defier and savagely funny social critic. The result is a delightful contrast between poet and comic.
“Rare artist…strong poetry, complex melodies, clever wit.” – SingOut!
Cheryl Wheeler has to be seen to be appreciated. Nothing you read and nothing you hear from her albums prepares you for how entertaining a performer she is. If you’re not already familiar with Cheryl, you have probably heard her music. She is very respected as a songwriter by her peers, which can be seen by how many of them record her songs. Cheryl’s songs have been covered by artists as diverse as Dan Seals, Peter Paul & Mary, Kenny Loggins, Garth Brooks, Suzy Bogguss, Melanie, Bette Midler, Maura O’Connell, Sylvia, Kathy Mattea, and Holly Near.
From her albums you can tell that she is a gifted songwriter with a beautiful voice. From other people’s comments about her you learn that she is a natural storyteller with a fantastic sense of humor. But until you see her in person, you never really believe what you’ve been told about her. Interestingly enough, almost half of the songs she performs during her shows have never been recorded!
Cheryl’s first concert was to a captive audience. She found an old toy ukulele in a neighbor’s attic and serenaded her mother who was taking a bath at the time. A year later she got a real ukulele, followed by her first guitar. She learned guitar from a neighbor, who also taught a group of boys. Each week they would get together and play just about any song they could think of for hours on end. Her first public performance was at a Hootenanny when she was 12. She started writing her own songs when she was 17.
Cheryl has never had a “day job,” and her first professional gigs were at the Steak and Ale Restaurant in her home town of Timonium, Maryland. The place only had one PA system; in the middle of her songs you would hear: “Jones, party of four … Jones, party of four.” She finally convinced them to get a second PA system.
She performed at venues around Baltimore and Washington DC before moving to New England in 1976, where she now lives. She tours extensively, often performing solo or with Kenny White, who often opens her shows as well. She appeared as part of the On a Winter’s Night tour, and was part of the Philo 25th Anniversary tour.
Her funny stories between songs reveal her talent for diversity. Each time she tells a story, it will be a little bit different, so even if you’ve heard it before, you still find yourself laughing.
Kenny White
“A scathingly brilliant and entertaining songwriter.” -Dalis Allen, Producer, Kerrville Folk Festival
KENNY WHITE comes to the world of the touring singer-songwriter following a long and successful musical journey. An accomplished pianist, who also performs on guitar, Kenny has now become more known for his clever lyrics. LONG LIST OF PRIORS, his aptly named current album, is the latest collection of original songs: snapshots of the human condition. Audiences often comment that a Kenny White concert moves them to laughter and tears, sometimes within the same song! “If Mark Twain could sing and play piano like a virtuoso, his name would be Kenny White.”, Stu Kuby, The Strand, Hudson Falls, NY. Kenny recently completed an 18-month tour performing his original songs while traveling as the opener for Stephen Stills & Judy Collins, and has toured for many years with Cheryl Wheeler. He is looking forward to returning to the road to perform his own full-length shows.
Born in New York City and raised across the river in Fort Lee, NJ, Kenny White began his career in the 1970s, touring exclusively as the keyboard player for Jonathan Edwards and later with Livingston Taylor, on Linda Ronstadt’s legendary, “Living in the USA” tour.
He became a fixture in the NYC studio scene throughout the 1980s and 1990s, producing and arranging hundreds of commercials for TV and radio, beginning with “The Unsinkable Taste of Cheerios,” nearly seven years of Chevrolet’s “Heartbeat of America” campaign, countless ads for Coca Cola and many others. Commercial work enabled White to direct artists as renowned and varied as Linda Ronstadt, Gladys Knight, Mavis Staples, Ricky Skaggs, and Aaron Neville. White contributed to film soundtracks as writer/musician including Message in a Bottle, Where the Heart Is and four films by Indie-director laureate, John Sayles. Kenny also appears on dozens of recordings of other musicians, including Marc Cohn’s platinum debut.
Whenever he could break free from the recording studios, Kenny would often support other musicians in live concerts. After being hailed by reviewers from the New York Times to the San Francisco Chronicle for his “thrilling” and “unique” piano playing, White chose, in 2001, to devote himself to making his own album, one that not only showcased his talent as a musician, but also as a lyricist. Friends such as Cheryl Wheeler invited White to tour as an opening act on behalf of his first album, UNINVITED GUEST. He also toured as the Special Guest opener for Judy Collins, who signed him to her own Wildflower Records label, releasing SYMPHONY IN 16 BARS in 2005 and NEVER LIKE THIS in 2006. COMFORT IN THE STATIC, released in 2010, landed on many “Favorite Album of the Year” radio lists.
Kenny White’s record producing credits include Shawn Colvin’s Grammy-nominated song, “I Don’t Know Why,” as well as the last four solo CDs for Peter Wolf, formerly with the J. Geils Band, with a new album anticipated for 2022. Their second album, SLEEPLESS was named one of Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” The productions with Wolf, enabled Kenny to work with an array of guest artists including Merle Haggard and Keith Richards.
White’s music has been discovered in the UK and Europe, where he tours annually in the Spring. He was awarded the International Songwriting Award at the Premio Ciampi music festival in Livomo, Italy. And though he has all but given up his days as a sideman, in 2014, he accepted an offer by none other than Tom Jones to play in his ‘soul quartet’ for a sold-out, three-week US tour.