Clarence White (1944 to 1973) turned the acoustic guitar into a lead instrument in bluegrass. He did it as a teenager with the Kentucky Colonels, whose 1964 album Appalachian Swing! is an all-instrumental record built around his flatpicking. He then spent four and a half years as the electric guitarist in the Byrds and helped invent the B-Bender. A drunk driver killed him in 1973 at age 29. The IBMA put him in its hall of fame in 2016.
Why White matters
Doc Watson showed that a guitar could play a fiddle tune. White showed what came next. He played bluegrass breaks that did not sound like a fiddle or a banjo. They had syncopation and open strings ringing against fretted notes. He also played rhythm guitar with a drive that pulled a whole band forward. Tony Rice later played White’s guitar and built his career on White’s ideas. Every modern flatpicker who drops a rest where a note should be, or lets an open string ring against a fretted one, is quoting him.
Life and career
Clarence Joseph LeBlanc was born on June 7, 1944, in Lewiston, Maine. His father Eric played guitar, fiddle, banjo, and harmonica, and the family used the name White. Clarence started guitar at age six. The family moved to Burbank, California, in 1954, and Clarence, his brother Roland, and his brother Eric Jr. formed the Three Little Country Boys that year. Clarence was ten.
By the late 1950s the group was the Country Boys, with Billy Ray Latham on banjo and LeRoy Mack on Dobro. They appeared twice on The Andy Griffith Show in 1961. In September 1962 they became the Kentucky Colonels. That April, Clarence had seen Doc Watson at the Ash Grove in Los Angeles. He took Watson’s open strings and syncopation and built his own style on them. The Colonels recorded The New Sound of Bluegrass America in 1963 and Appalachian Swing! for World Pacific in 1964. The second record has twelve instrumentals and no vocals, which was rare for a bluegrass band at the time. The Colonels broke up on October 31, 1965, came back in 1966, and ended for good in early 1967.
Around 1966 White sold his Martin D-28 and bought a Fender Telecaster. He formed the country band Nashville West in 1967 and worked as a session player in Los Angeles. In 1967 he and drummer Gene Parsons built the first B-Bender, a spring and lever inside the Telecaster, linked to the strap button, that raised the pitch of the B string so a guitarist could imitate a pedal steel. White joined the Byrds as a full member in July 1968. He played on Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde, Ballad of Easy Rider, (Untitled), Byrdmaniax, and Farther Along. He also played sessions for Joe Cocker, Randy Newman, the Everly Brothers, Linda Ronstadt, Arlo Guthrie, and Jackson Browne.
The Byrds ended on February 24, 1973. That spring White recorded Muleskinner with Peter Rowan, Richard Greene, David Grisman, and Bill Keith. In May and June 1973 he toured Europe and the United States with Roland as the White Brothers, a reunion of the Kentucky Colonels sound. On July 15, 1973, a drunk driver struck and killed him in Palmdale, California, while he loaded gear after a show.
Playing style
White played bluegrass with a flatpick on a 1935 Martin D-28. His rhythm playing had drive. Roger McGuinn of the Byrds said White never played anything that sounded weak and that his push pulled the whole band up.
His lead playing had two marks he took from Doc Watson and made his own. First, syncopation. He put accents on the offbeat and left rests where other players put notes. Second, open strings. He let open strings ring against fretted notes up the neck, which gave his lines a chiming sound. Played fast, those two ideas gave him a sound no fiddle or banjo could copy.
On electric guitar he brought the same ideas to a 1954 Telecaster with the prototype B-Bender. The bender let him raise one string while the others held still, so a single-note line could sound like a pedal steel.
Influences and legacy
White named Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, Joe Maphis, and Django Reinhardt as influences. He played beside his brother Roland White on mandolin for most of his life. He worked with Tut Taylor on the 1964 album Dobro Country and with Peter Rowan and David Grisman in Muleskinner.
His 1935 Martin D-28 went to Tony Rice, who played it for the rest of his career. His Telecaster went to Marty Stuart. Rolling Stone ranked him No. 41 among the 100 greatest guitarists of all time in 2003. The IBMA inducted him into its hall of fame in 2016 and inducted the Kentucky Colonels in 2019. Archivist Alec Palao called him one of a handful of true greats among the instrumentalists of twentieth century popular music.
Signature tunes and songs
Listen to the Mockingbird Dark Hollow Chestnut Mare.
Essential recordings
Appalachian Swing!, the Kentucky Colonels (World Pacific, 1964) Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde, the Byrds (1969) (Untitled), the Byrds (1970) Muleskinner (1973) 33 Acoustic Guitar Instrumentals (2000)
Awards and honors
Rolling Stone 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, No. 41 (2003) Gibson Top 50 Guitarists of All Time, No. 42 (2010) International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame (2016) International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, with the Kentucky Colonels (2019)
Watch and listen
The Kentucky Colonels play Chug A Lug in 1965. Watch White’s right hand and listen for the offbeat accents in his break.
White plays on the Guitar Workshop television show in April 1973, three months before he died. This is a close look at his acoustic playing late in his life.
What to learn from White
Learn Listen to the Mockingbird from the Kentucky Colonels. The tune lets you hear every idea he had: open strings against fretted notes, rests in the melody, and accents that fall off the beat. The technique to steal is the open string. Find a melody note that lives on an open string and play it that way instead of fretting it, then let it ring into the next fretted note. Do that in one break and it will sound like White. Then take his drive into your rhythm playing. A band with one guitarist who pushes the way he did has a groove.
Sources
Clarence White, Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum Clarence White, Wikipedia Clarence White, AllMusic
Related players
See the guitar players hub and the guitar guide for more flatpickers. White learned from Doc Watson and passed his guitar and his ideas to Tony Rice. He recorded Muleskinner with Peter Rowan. Bryan Sutton and David Grier are two of the many flatpickers who came after him.