Billy White Acre

Billy White Acre began his musical journey as a choirboy in his native Toronto. He spent his preteen years in England on a singing scholarship, learning the rudiments of piano and cello. He picked up guitar in his late teens under the mystical metal influences of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin and the smokin' Tele-kinetics of Roy Buchanan. The early records of Canadian singer/ songwriter Bruce Cockburn turned him on to open-tuned solo guitar music, leading him to Hedges, Kottke, and eventually the '80s soundscapes of Johnny Marr, Adrian Belew, and Andy Summers.

In his early twenties Billy began studying at Boulder, Colorado's Naropa Institute, taking composition with Ralph Towner, world music and bebop with Bill Douglas, and sitting in on classes with Steve Tibbetts and Robben Ford. He stayed in Colorado long enough to be voted Denver's "Best Solo Performer" in 1987, and two years later migrated to Southern California, where he promptly won BAM magazine's Southern California Guitarist Of The Year contest. White Acre then formed the "heavy wood" trio Big Planet, whose independent 1991 release was produced by Rod Stewart helmsman Jim Cregan.

In 1995, Billy was signed to Touchwood Records and self-produced "Billy's Not Bitter" with bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen and Tom Diekmeier on drums which garnered Best Independent Album of 1996 at the Los Angeles Music Awards.

Since the late 90's, White Acre has mostly kept out of trouble composing for movies, television, documentaries, and advertising. Some of his film credits include "Zombie Strippers" (Sony Pictures), "Love & Sex" (Lions Gate Films), and "Cookers" for which he earned the Best Film Score award at the Milan Int'l Film Festival. His television credits include shows scored for Discovery, National Geographic, and The History Channel.