Biography

Alison Whiteacre, PKA Billy White Acre began her musical journey as a chorister in her native Toronto. She spent her preteen years in England on a singing scholarship, learning the rudiments of piano and cello. She picked up guitar in her 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 her on to open-tuned solo guitar music, leading her to Hedges, Kottke, and eventually the '80s soundscapes of Johnny Marr, Adrian Belew, and Andy Summers.

In her early twenties Alison 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. She stayed in Colorado long enough to be voted Denver's "Best Solo Performer" in 1987, and two years later migrated to Southern California, where she promptly won BAM magazine's Southern California Guitarist Of The Year contest. Whiteacre then formed the "heavy wood" trio Big Planet, whose independent 1991 release was produced by Rod Stewart helmsman Jim Cregan.

In 1995, Alison 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, Whiteacre has mostly kept out of trouble composing for movies, television, documentaries, and advertising. Some of her film credits include "Zombie Strippers" (Sony Pictures), "Love & Sex" (Lions Gate Films), and "Cookers" for which she earned the Best Film Score award at the Milan Int'l Film Festival. Her television credits include 100s of shows scored for Discovery, National Geographic, and The History Channel.

Alison’s publishing/licensing company, Big Planet Music Inc. includes over 4500 of her original tracks.
- IMDb mini biography by: Kharin Gilbert