Ghostwriter and Ralph White at The Buzz Mill's Shady Lane location - Friday the 13th!
Ralph E. White III is a musician from Austin, Texas who has drawn inspiration from traditional blues, old-time country, rock, African and Cajun music, among other traditions. He principally plays banjo, fiddle, accordion, guitar, kalimba and mbira. He was a founding member of the innovative and influential Austin trio the Bad Livers, formed in 1990 with banjoist and singer/songwriter Danny Barnes and bass and tuba player Mark Rubin. During the early 1990s, "White's sizzling dexterity on fiddle and accordion" was a "cornerstone of their buzz." After leaving the Bad Livers in late 1996, White embarked on a solo career. Since then, he has become a legendary Austin musician, and was chosen by Kevin Curtin of the Austin Chronicle as the best strings player of 2015. While the style of music he plays is difficult to categorize, No Depression concluded that "White has invented a type of music that sounds traditional while also being refreshingly new."
Ghostwriter has performed as a one-man stripped-down roots act for the last seventeen years, and released nine albums on his own End of the West label. Dubbed "the original punk-folk troubadour," Ghostwriter comes off as a post-punk version of the Harry Smith era self-accompanied singer-songwriter. Ghostwriter has opened for icons Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and T-Model Ford, and played in festivals from Sleazefest in Chapel Hill to Not the Same Old Blues Crap in London. Ghostwriter’s 2018 release String Noise and Dust combines feedback and finger picking with road imagery and painful love, while 2019’s Hard Luck Live is a raw representation of Ghostwriter’s intense live performances. Known for his visceral songwriting and DIY ethos, Ghostwriter blends influences from pre-war blues to noise-punk for an original take on American roots music.