Clarence White
Clarence White (born Clarence Joseph LeBlanc; June 7, 1944 – July 15, 1973)[1] was an American bluegrass and country guitarist and singer.[2][3] He is best known as a member of the bluegrass ensemble the Kentucky Colonels and the rock band the Byrds, as well as for being a pioneer of the musical genre of country rock during the late 1960s.[3] White also worked extensively as a session musician, appearing on recordings by the Everly Brothers, Joe Cocker,[4] Ricky Nelson, Pat Boone, the Monkees, Randy Newman,[5] Gene Clark,[3] Linda Ronstadt,[6] Arlo Guthrie,[7] and Jackson Browne among others.[8]
For other people named Clarence White, see Clarence White (disambiguation).
Clarence White
Clarence Joseph LeBlanc
June 7, 1944
Lewiston, Maine, U.S.
July 15, 1973 (aged 29)[1]
Palmdale, California, U.S.
Musician, singer
1954–1973
Sundown, Republic, Briar International, World Pacific, Bakersfield International, Columbia, Warner Bros.
Together with frequent collaborator Gene Parsons, he invented the B-Bender, a guitar accessory that enables a player to mechanically bend the B-string up a whole tone and emulate the sound of a pedal steel guitar. White was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Fame in 2016, and was inducted a second time in 2019 as a member of The Kentucky Colonels.
Early years[edit]
Clarence Joseph LeBlanc was born on June 7, 1944, in Lewiston, Maine.[6] The LeBlanc family, who later changed their surname to White, were of French-Canadian ancestry and hailed from New Brunswick, Canada.[6][9] Clarence's father, Eric LeBlanc Sr., played guitar, banjo, fiddle, and harmonica, ensuring that his offspring grew up surrounded by music.[6][9] A child prodigy, Clarence began playing guitar at the age of six.[10] At such a young age he was barely able to hold the instrument and as a result, he briefly switched to ukulele, awaiting a time when his young hands would be big enough to confidently grapple with the guitar.[5]
In 1954, when Clarence was ten, the White family relocated to Burbank, California and soon after, Clarence joined his brothers Roland and Eric Jr. (who played mandolin and banjo respectively) in a trio called Three Little Country Boys.[2] Although they initially started out playing contemporary country music, the group soon switched to a purely bluegrass repertoire, as a result of Roland's burgeoning interest in the genre.[6]
In 1957, banjoist Billy Ray Latham and Dobro player LeRoy Mack were added to the line-up,[5] with the band renaming themselves the Country Boys soon after.[2] In 1961, the Country Boys also added Roger Bush on double bass, as a replacement for Eric White Jr.[2] That same year, Clarence and other members of the Country Boys appeared on two episodes of The Andy Griffith Show.[2] Between 1959 and 1962, the group released three singles on the Sundown, Republic and Briar International record labels.[11]
Session work (1966–1968)[edit]
During 1964, White began to look beyond bluegrass music towards rock 'n' roll as an avenue for artistic expression.[5] Although he was influenced by Country guitarists like Doc Watson, Don Reno and Joe Maphis, he also idolized the playing of jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, rock 'n' roller Chuck Berry, and studio musician James Burton.[18] White even anticipated the viability of a folk/rock hybrid when, in the summer of 1964, he was approached by Jim Dickson to record a version of the then-unreleased Bob Dylan song "Mr. Tambourine Man" with electric instruments.[5] However, despite White's enthusiasm for the project, he was unable to convince his bandmates in the Kentucky Colonels of the experiment's validity[5] and ultimately, the song was instead recorded by Dickson's proteges, the Byrds.[19]
By the time the original line-up of the Kentucky Colonels folded in late 1965, White had become a respected and well-known guitarist.[5] Abandoning bluegrass temporarily, he switched from his Martin D-28 acoustic guitar to an electric Fender Telecaster, with the intention of becoming a studio musician like his hero James Burton.[4] Transitioning to electric guitar required White to modify his right hand playing technique, switch from open chording to fretting the whole guitar neck with his left hand, and practice using the tone and volume controls.[4] However, he soon mastered the intricacies of the instrument and, between 1965 and 1968, he undertook session work for artists including Ricky Nelson, the Monkees, and the Gosdin Brothers.[5][18]
As 1965 turned into 1966, White met Gene Parsons and Gib Guilbeau at a recording session for the Gosdin Brothers and shortly after, he began to perform live with the duo in local California clubs, as well as doing regular session work on their records, which were released under the moniker of Cajun Gib and Gene.[3][18] 1966 also saw White begin playing with a country group called Trio, which featured drummer Bart Haney and former Kentucky Colonel, Roger Bush, on bass.[18] In autumn of that year, as a result of his friendship with Gilbeau, Parsons and the Gosdin Brothers, White was asked to provide lead guitar to ex-Byrd Gene Clark's debut solo album, Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers.[3][20] White briefly joined Clark's touring band shortly thereafter.[21]
During the Clark album sessions, White reconnected with mandolin player and bassist Chris Hillman, who he had known during the early 1960s as a member of the bluegrass combo the Hillmen.[22] Hillman was currently a member of the Byrds and, in December 1966, he invited White to contribute countrified lead guitar playing to his songs "Time Between" and "The Girl with No Name", which both appeared on the Byrds' Younger Than Yesterday album.[22] The country-oriented nature of the songs was something of a stylistic departure for the group and can be seen as an early indicator of the experimentation with country music that would color the Byrds' subsequent work.[23] White also contributed guitar to the band's follow-up album, The Notorious Byrd Brothers,[24] and to their seminal 1968 country rock release, Sweetheart of the Rodeo.[25]
Death[edit]
White died on July 15, 1973, after being struck by a drunk driver.[1][74] The accident occurred shortly after 2 a.m., while he and his brother Roland were loading equipment into their car in Palmdale, California, following a White Brothers concert. Gram Parsons was especially shaken by his death; he led a singalong of "Farther Along" at White's funeral service and later conceived his final song (before his own death), "In My Hour of Darkness", as a partial tribute to White.
Clarence White was survived by his brothers Roland and Eric and sisters JoAnne and Rosemarie, and his one daughter, Michelle.
Musical influence[edit]
Clarence White helped popularize the acoustic guitar as a lead instrument in bluegrass music, building on the work of guitarists such as Doc Watson. Prior to the advent of the more aggressive flatpicking style pioneered by guitarists like Watson and White, the guitar was strictly a rhythm instrument, save for a few exceptions (such as the occasional guitar track by banjoist Don Reno). Many of the most influential flatpickers of the 20th century cite White as a primary influence, including Dan Crary, Norman Blake, and Tony Rice. Rice owned and played White's highly modified 1935 Martin D-28. David Grier and Russ Barenberg are two other acoustic guitarists who were heavily influenced by White's guitar work. White's bluegrass playing with the Kentucky Colonels was also a considerable influence on Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead,[4] who traveled with the band during 1964.[75]
On the electric side of the guitar spectrum, White was similarly influential. Together with fellow Byrds bandmember Gene Parsons, White invented the B-Bender device. This device raises the B-string (second string) of the guitar a whole step by the use of pulleys and levers attached to both the upper strap knob and the second string on the guitar. It is activated by pushing down on the neck, and produces a "pedal steel" type sound. Arlen Roth, heavily influenced by this style, did not at the time know that White and Parsons had invented a B-bender, so instead developed his own unique all-finger bending version of this technique. This was heavily documented in his ground-breaking book, "Nashville Guitar", all of his recordings, as well as his book "Masters of the Telecaster". Subsequently, his Telecaster sound became as notable as his bluegrass playing. Marty Stuart, another guitarist influenced by White's playing, now owns and regularly plays White's 1954 Fender Telecaster with the prototype B-Bender.[76]
Music archivist and writer Alec Palao has called White "one of a handful of true greats amongst the instrumentalists of 20th century popular music", before adding that "the waves created by the guitarist's idiosyncratic style are still forming ripples within bluegrass, country and rock 'n' roll."[77] In 2003, White was ranked No. 41 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. In 2010, guitar manufacturer Gibson ranked White at No. 42 on their Top 50 Guitarists of All Time list.[78]