Age: 49
Home: Mount Pleasant
Profession: Dentist
Passions: “Music, people, and the musicians who make Awendaw Green possible”
Find Eddie: awendawgreen.com
Eddie White loves your band. The Mount Pleasant native may never have heard you play, but he loves that you’re making music and wants to help you find an audience. Two years ago, the successful dentist, husband, and father of three invested in a rural 3.5-acre property, complete with a house and a barn, that’s become the Lowcountry’s most unlikely focal point for local music—Awendaw Green.
What started as an impromptu recording session with songwriter Doug Jones in the house’s kitchen turned into a full-scale recording studio. White’s 17-year-old son, Clay, was soon collaborating with his Wando High School buddies in their band, The Whisperjets, using the studio’s world-class equipment. Since then, hundreds of musicians have performed or recorded at the Green, either at one of many weekend-long festivals or the countless Wednesday night “Barn Jams.”
Touring acts call White hoping to play, following the buzz throughout the Southeast that this tiny, backwoods venue attracts hundreds of listeners who actually pay attention, appreciate the music, and even buy CDs. “People know that they can come out here and connect with us, and we’ll make them part of our world,” says White. “I’ve had three people come up and hand me demos in one night.”
For White, the giving back doesn’t stop with the musicians. All of the concerts benefit local charities, from orphanages to pet shelters to sea turtle rescues. For their marquee event, Rocktoberfest, 102 bands played over four days last October, with proceeds creating a fund to purchase instruments for high school bands. “Music for me is about the people involved. Every day, someone new enters our world and makes it that much better.”
