1. Clarence White 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.
29 Facts About Clarence White
1. 2.
Clarence 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.
3.
Clarence White Joseph LeBlanc was born on June 7,1944, in Lewiston, Maine.
4.
The LeBlanc family, who later changed their surname to Clarence White, were of French-Canadian ancestry and hailed from New Brunswick, Canada.
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.
6.
Around this time, Clarence White's flatpicking guitar style was becoming a much more prominent part of the group's music.
7.
Hillman was currently a member of the Byrds and, in December 1966, he invited Clarence 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.
8.
Clarence White contributed guitar to the band's follow-up album, The Notorious Byrd Brothers, and to their seminal 1968 country rock release, Sweetheart of the Rodeo.
9.
Clarence White reportedly recorded a solo album for the label, although it has never been released.
10.
Clarence White would go on to use the device extensively as a member of the Byrds and, as a result, the distinctive sound of the StringBender would become a defining characteristic of that band's music during Clarence White's tenure with the group.
11.
Clarence White remained until the band was finally dissolved by lead guitarist Roger McGuinn in February 1973.
12.
Clarence White was brought into the group at bass player Chris Hillman's suggestion, as someone who could handle the band's older rock material and their newer country-flavored repertoire.
13.
Once he was a member of the Byrds, Clarence White began to express dissatisfaction with the band's current drummer, Kevin Kelley.
14.
Hillman quit the Byrds within a month of Clarence White joining, in order to form the Flying Burrito Brothers with Gram Parsons.
15.
Clarence White had that conservative thing he got from Bluegrass, where you underplay it on stage, where everybody poker-faces it.
16.
Clarence White would do these truly outrageous things on guitar, but hardly move a muscle, aside from his hands.
17.
The album included a re-recording of the Gene Parsons and Clarence White-penned instrumental "Nashville West", as well as a rendition of the traditional song "Old Blue", which was the first Byrds' recording to utilize the StringBender.
18.
The Ballad of Easy Rider album followed in November 1969, on which Clarence White could be heard leading the band through a rendition of the traditional song "Oil in My Lamp", representing the guitarist's first lead vocal performance as a Byrd.
19.
Two of the album's studio recordings featured Clarence White singing lead vocals: a cover version of the Lowell George composition "Truck Stop Girl" and a rendition of Leadbelly's "Take a Whiff on Me".
20.
The 1971 Byrdmaniax album saw Clarence White singing lead vocals on "My Destiny", written by Helen Carter, and "Jamaica Say You Will", penned by the then little-known songwriter Jackson Browne.
21.
Clarence White was incredibly talented, and full of life and full of music.
22.
Clarence White recorded a total of six songs, four of which would belatedly be released on the archival album Silver Meteor: A Progressive Country Anthology in 1980.
23.
Clarence White died on July 15,1973, after being struck by a drunk driver.
24.
Clarence White was survived by, his wife Susie, daughter Michelle, and son Bradley.
25.
Clarence White helped popularize the acoustic guitar as a lead instrument in bluegrass music, building on the work of guitarists such as Doc Watson.
26.
Rice owned and played Clarence White's highly modified 1935 Martin D-28.
27.
Clarence White's bluegrass playing with the Kentucky Colonels was a considerable influence on Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, who traveled with the band during 1964.
28.
Together with fellow Byrds bandmember Gene Parsons, Clarence White invented the B-Bender device.
29.
Marty Stuart, another guitarist influenced by Clarence White's playing, now owns and regularly plays Clarence White's 1954 Fender Telecaster with the prototype B-Bender.