You're listening to local music from Wisconsin.
This is Max Enquerade.
We are local music.
Jimmy Alex White may best be known as founding member of Madison's regional jam
in Funk Americana band, The Pine Travelers.
Songwriter and guitarist Alex White is played in dozens of bands in his 20-year career as a
professional musician, including as fourth coast and elf lettuce.
Sometimes solo, sometimes with band of jammers, welcome Alex White and Dave White
to Max Enquerade.
Welcome guys.
Thanks to Evan, it's that to be here with you.
That to be here, man.
All right, we just heard that song.
That was awesome you guys.
How does it feel to actually hear it?
It's done.
It's out there.
You just heard it on the radio.
You know, Alex has been listening to this song for a while now.
That was my first time hearing this.
Oh, that's so good.
That's my first time.
No, it sounded great on the headphones.
Yeah, yeah, and we have it on the big speakers out there.
So, oh, yeah, oh, okay.
Yeah, it's a great feeling to hear it finally mastered and everything.
The end product after painstakingly going back and fine-tuning going back again.
So yeah, it feels good to have it mastered.
Thank you for sharing it with us right here.
That was awesome.
Yeah.
Alex, a 20-year career in music, you know, you could probably be
fodder for a Hollywood movie, but tell us your backstory.
How did you get involved in music and what is your journey
to this moment?
Oh, well, I look back.
I was really immersed in music from day one.
Some of my earliest memories were music related.
My parents were actually in a folk rock band.
You know, for fun, but around here in Wisconsin?
Yeah, I'm from Sturgeon Bay, so it was up there.
But, you know, they had a lot of fun with it,
and I thought I was experiencing a concert every time.
Sometimes they'd rehearse in my living room,
and then I'd get to hear like the first half,
and then I'd have to go to bed,
but I'd be like a toddler and just crying
when my mom would put me to bed.
No, I don't want to go.
Just give me one, two more.
And like, I'd be doing like encore curtain calls,
and they'd be like, we've got to get this kid to bed.
But yeah, just like, on my mom's knee,
listening to them play and stuff.
So folk rap, explain that.
Well, I mean, folk rap, folk rock,
with acoustic guitar and rapping or what?
I, sure.
I mean, that would be that I've done some of that.
I've tried writing some stuff like that, I guess.
I like varieties.
So, sure.
Any crazy combinations are good for me.
That's sugar.
And then, you know, a couple of years
I've been good friends with Alex.
I've, he's one of the few friends of mine
that has as eclectic of a music taste as mine.
Like, it's not a style he's not into.
That's cool.
Alex, can you give us a 15-second improv?
Oh, yeah.
You draw me on the spot.
You don't get it on me.
I don't know if I have any, any ready right now,
but I'll get you some.
Sometimes I got to roll the dice.
And sometimes it would actually.
It could happen.
Yeah, that's fun.
Okay, tell us about your band, Elf Lettuce.
Opening weekly for Clyde's Double Field.
And can you also tell us a little secret maybe about Clyde
that maybe only you know something?
Oh, geez, I'd have to think.
Okay.
Well, that was, Elf Lettuce was, I started that
when I was in college and Steven's point,
we graduated, we relocated here because that was the move.
We always loved Madison.
And most of us wanted to come here.
And you know, played down here a year, a year and a half.
And then of mutual friends who was friends with Clyde,
he got our demo to Clyde.
And he just asked us to be the opening house band.
So every Monday that we could make it.
That's not back gig.
Yeah, it's the best musical internship I call it.
I've ever had in my life.
Sure.
Just amazing that he was willing to have us on.
And learn so much from him.
And it's just such a great experience overall.
I couldn't have imagined it happening.
And it was just, it was amazing for me.
You're not part of history.
It's amazing how many people get to say they've played
with Clyde's Double Field.
You know, people like you have been around the Madison
music scene for a long time.
It has to be quite the honor.
Dave, why don't you go up on a microphone
and tell us a little bit about yourself?
What's your musical background?
Where did you come into the mix here?
You know, I'm born raised from Madison, right here.
I kind of came from a musical family,
but largely classical and came from the type of family
where our parents insisted that we had to have
some kind of classical instrument
as a part of our education growing up,
which I really wasn't into.
But what did you start?
What did you play?
My main one was piano.
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, that was right.
Which once I got onto, well,
as soon as I stopped piano,
my 14th Christmas, I got my first bass guitar.
Oh, and then I got out.
And honestly, it because that was the first instrument
I got my, I just kind of got to teach myself.
So I'm completely self-taught on bass.
And then that was why I learned your way, right?
Yeah, and tell them non-conventional, like.
Yeah, well, I guess basically,
like I jumped right in way,
like the reason I started bass,
I wanted to be less claypool.
So, the primus was my main flame.
Oh, primus.
And like, yeah, exactly.
And that's why I love him.
No, but I mean, I, you know,
and no one can be less, right?
So, for, you know, first couple of years,
I tried to do that.
You know, it goes on and on and on.
And then, honestly, I would have been,
for the first like six years of my playing, practicing,
learning, I would have been the type of bassist,
no band would have ever wanted.
Oh, no.
I don't like less claypool.
Like, that's why he has his own band.
Most, most bands.
And you can tell if you're on style.
Yeah, yeah, and I did.
Very unique.
Let me ask you, have you were like,
in classical music, obviously,
you stand up bass as big there?
Yeah, he ever played that at all.
I have, I have, I've never been able to afford one.
Yeah, but they're really cool.
I mean, I, one day, I plan on it.
I love a good stand up bass player.
And I love them in a rock band or a country,
yeah, all of it.
Oh, it's so versatile.
And honestly, if you're a bassist that can do both,
you are the most in demand musician in the country.
I'm not there yet, I will, one day.
Good, and we can say we knew you when.
Okay, so Alex, back to you now,
you have a friend and a songwriting partner,
Nick Clutter of the Fine Travelers.
What was it like when he decided to move on?
It was just earth shattering, life shattering,
just every foundation shook
and the numbness, just all those things when you like,
lose a loved one or friend, you know,
unexpectedly, and especially that young and stuff.
And yeah, for, you know, I had a couple of month period
where not doing much creative, not doing much at all,
it took time off work and, you know, to reflect on that.
But eventually I had a little burst of inspiration.
Me and a friend were just kind of jamming on a cover,
I believe, and we weren't trying to do anything creatively,
right? It wasn't a writing session.
And just a new figure and melody came out,
and we both, you know, kind of felt he was somehow involved,
somehow, like his spirit.
And that kind of kicked me back into creative mode
and writing new stuff again and kind of got over that hump
and felt, you know, kind of weirdly in some way
that he helped me do that.
Well, he probably kicked you by, yeah.
And it was what I needed.
And, you know, that's what the ones that aren't with us anymore.
I mean, what more would they want
than for us to keep going and honor them
by doing the best work we can
and trying our best memory of those?
Yeah, may I ask for those who are listening?
Can you tell us what happened?
He took his own life one night.
Yeah, he's.
I'm so happy.
Yeah, thank you.
Yeah, thank you for continuing on though.
Yeah, that's really important.
Thanks for the encouragement, you know.
I mean, you guys are like, you know,
lending them a card to you, man.
I mean, the biggest small town in America,
that's got to be one of the best local songs I've ever heard.
We can play that every Saturday,
and I would never get sick of it.
Yeah, I'm so glad, Alex, you know,
honestly, me and Alex have known each other
in passing for a few years now,
but it was only about maybe a year ago,
Ish, that a mutual friend of ours
introduced us and we started actually working together
and writing songs together.
And like you're saying, I'm just so glad.
You know, you know, losing loved ones
can do a lot of things to you.
And the fact that he chose to move
in the direction of more creation.
Yes, that it means it means the world to me.
And I don't even know where I'd be right now without Alex.
Yeah, I swear.
Oh, thanks, man.
Well, tell us about your new project.
Alex and friends in the new music that we've been hearing.
Tell us about that.
Well, it's a four-song EP, about 32 minutes of music.
Two of the songs were actually,
I had worked out with Pine Travelers
and wanted to record with them.
One of them, we'd even played out with Pine Travelers.
And then two of them are, you know,
they've been finished off since then in the interim.
So it's kind of like, you know,
continuing Pine Travelers and then shaping them out
with this new band too.
So it's a little bit of the old and the new
and the kind of catapulting forward in our new direction.
But transitional, yeah.
Yeah, it's, you know, it's a lot of the similar sounds
of Pine Travelers, funk, rock, Americana, et cetera.
But it's, you know, we're open to eclectic styles
and moving forward, you know.
So who are your other friends besides Wyatt?
We got Matt Hunt on drums.
And I actually, I make it in the friend.
I make it in the friends so that it's eclectic.
So, you know, schedules are crazy.
People are in other bands too.
So when some members are, so we basically kind of have
like two rotating drummers, two bass players.
We've got Matt Hunt on drums.
We've got our friend Logan who introduced us on drums.
Sometimes Ashish Pradhan on guitar,
really talented guitar player.
Ashish is amazing.
And Chat Wells from cruising around in a couple other bands.
He's in the fold as well.
And honestly, the good part about that is that every, you know,
depending on where you see us, what the lineup is,
you kind of get a different vibe with each lineup.
So with me, me, David, Wyatt and Logan are like,
Logan's on drums, I'm on bass.
You get, you get kind of a different rhythm section feel.
But if you got Matt and you got, you know, Chat,
you get, I mean, we're talking completely different.
So every show is brand new.
I love that.
I do.
I like that.
I love the interchangeable parts of the musicians
in the one project.
We've had a couple of bands on with that scenario.
I love it.
Alex and Dave from Alex White and Friends,
the EP release show is coming up at the Burr O'Kir
in Madison on February 24.
This is going to be a great show.
Tell us about the show.
And I hear that maybe Burby might be playing.
Oh, yeah.
Show Burby Burbuck on keyboards.
He's on two of the songs on the EP.
So yeah, he already knows two of those.
And I've played together and been friends with Burby
for over 15 years.
nominal player.
He does the last waltz in Beyond Tribute
with me, every Thanksgiving.
We've done that for like about nine years now.
And just a great guy.
He just adds such a great flavor anytime he plays.
Ham and organ, piano, synth, he does it all.
And really adds a special flavor.
And you're playing with Lamp House Blue.
Tell us about them.
Yeah, they're a newer group.
Josh, the man who mastered the album,
he's a really great engineer and as well,
but also a multi-inch instrumentalist.
And our friend Logan is the main drummer for that band too.
They're great.
They play almost exclusively originals too.
And they've got so much original material just coming out
like a fountain.
They're really prolific.
And our man, Josh, is such a phenomenally talented producer,
mixer, master, he's just, he's a,
he's a designer writing to the max playing as a guitar player
and singer it like, you know, I don't know many personally.
Other than Alex, I don't know many songwriters
that just have that, that, that it factors that Josh does.
And a little bit of it of everything.
It's always pretty good on the technical end.
Real quick, where can people pick up the new music?
Is there gonna be a physical release?
Just digital or what?
Yeah, at the, at the show next Saturday the 24th,
we're gonna have CDs available,
but they're actually spoilers already
on the streaming platforms and stuff,
put them on just late last week.
So they're on, you know, Spotify iTunes,
the whole thing.
Max and Gradio.
Yeah, right here.
Yeah, of course, yeah.
And yeah, pretty, pretty much wherever you find it,
I believe it'll be up on platforms.
The important ones.
Excellent.
That's awesome.
Congratulations.
Yeah, congratulations.
Thank you so much.
Yeah, we're really happy.
Happy about it.
I'm so glad.
Check it out in another song right now
from Alex White and Friends.
This is called Rags to Riches.
Tell me about this song, Alex.
This actually, Nick, I came up with,
with the main riff for this song with Nick.
It was summer 2020.
We're like finally going out a little bit
after COVID.
We're done at James Madison Park.
And we were working on that riff together a little bit.
It just kind of came out.
He didn't finish the song with me,
but that's the origins of it.
That's a great origin.
Let's check it all right now for Alex White and Friends.
I'm Max and Gradio.
We are local music.