OFFICAL WEBSITE OF EARL WHITE

EARL'S MUSICAL BIOGRAPHY

By Michael John Simmons; @ Fiddler's Magazine

There have been many musicians whose careers have encompassed the history of country music, but Earl White may be the only one who has lived the history in reverse. Earl White was born in Hardin County, Tennessee, on March 1, 1936, and was playing the fiddle not long after that. By the time he was eighteen he was playing with modern players like Marty Robbins and Hawkshaw Hawkins. In the 1960s he took a step backwards in time when he started playing bluegrass with the Cumberland Mountain Boys. And in the 1970s he found himself at the dawn of modern country music when he joined the Crook Brothers, an old time music act that had first appeared on the Grand Ole Opry in 1926. In 2005 White celebrated the 50th anniversary of his first appearance on the Opry and he kindly took the time to speak with me by phone about his remarkable career.

How did you get started on the violin?

My dad and my grandfather were old time fiddlers so I grew up around the music. I started picking on mandolin when I was around five or six and began on fiddle a year or two later. I drove everyone crazy trying to learn “Bonaparte’s Retreat,” but figuring out that tune was the way I learned how bowing and fingering worked. After I learned a few more tunes, to my family’s relief, I’d drive with my dad out into the country and we’d play what we called musicals. We’d go out to people’s houses and play on their porch or if we were indoors, they’d put up the windows so folks outside could hear the music. I did that until I got into high school.

So you stopped playing musicals in high school?

Well, I had my school studies and I also formed a band called the Tennessee Playboys that kept me busy. We had our own radio show on WDXI in Jackson, Tennessee. At the time one of the most popular performers in the area was Carl Perkins, who was still doing a lot of country music then. When I was in high school Flatt and Scruggs played nearby and we went and saw them and I got a chance to play with them on a couple of songs. I guess I must have impressed them because after the show Lester Flatt told my father, “Mr. White, one of these days you’re going to lose your boy.” A few months after that, my sister and I won a singing contest and we both got to perform on the Flatt and Scruggs Martha White television show.

What did you do after high school?

I moved to Nashville to attend Draughn’s Business College but I also thought I’d try and break into the music business. I wound up getting a show on the local television station, which helped introduce me to lots of musicians. One of the first guys I met was Ernie Ashworth, who was just getting started, too. He later performed under the name Billy Worth and wrote loads of great songs for other singers. We performed together a bit, and I would sing, play a little fiddle and some guitar. In 1954 I met Don Helms who had played steel guitar with Hank Williams in the Drifting Cowboys. He was putting together a band to tour with Ray Price, but I couldn’t get union clearance fast enough and they went on the road without me. In January 1955 I did get a job playing bass with Marty Robbins and later that year I played on the Grand Ole Opry for the first time. When Marty played that time he used a bass player named Lightnin’ Chance so I got to play fiddle. I used my grandfather’s old violin, which I still use to this day.

So you were playing on the road and not in the studio?

Yes. Studio playing is very different from playing live, and I never really liked the discipline of studio work. Everything has to be so precise. Besides, I really enjoy seeing the faces of the people I’m entertaining. At the time I was only eighteen years old and it was exciting to be on the road. On our first tour we drove through California in these large touring cars. We didn’t have the fancy buses you get these days. I remember we were touring with Cowboy Copas and George Morgan and we drew lots to see who would ride with them and I lost. They had a lot of fun at my expense on that tour.

It must have been very exciting hanging out at the Opry then.

Yes, it was. I got to meet and play with all my favorite musicians. I became friends with Benny Martin, who, after my father, had the biggest influence on my playing. I was also inspired by Howdy Forrester and Tommy Jackson. The great thing about the Opry back then was that it was all about the music. Roy Acuff’s dressing room was always full of fiddlers and pickers and he enjoyed nothing more than sitting back and listening to us play. You got a chance to learn music from people you really respected. When I started playing there, there were still people from the early days and I got to play with Sam and Kirk McGee, the Crook Brothers, and Dr. Humphrey Bate’s daughter Alcyone -- people who had been there when the Opry first got started.

How long did you stay with Marty Robbins?

I was with him for two years. When he went pop with “A White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation” he didn’t have much use for a fiddler so I worked a bit with Hawkshaw Hawkins and Jean Shepard and for a very brief time with Porter Wagoner. In 1958 I was drafted into the army. I wound up being assigned to the army country band called the Circle A Wranglers, which was started a few earlier by Faron Young. After I got out of the army in 1960 I went back to working with Hawkshaw and Jean -- they weren’t touring that much at the time. A friend of mine who was having eye surgery asked me to fill in for him with Hank Snow, who was going to do a short tour of Europe. I opened for him playing guitar and singing some songs. Chubby Wise was Hank’s fiddler at the time. We did some twin fiddle things every now and then and I did pick up some good pointers from Chubby. I was really starting to do well as a fiddler in Nashville until 1963, when my friends Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas died in that terrible plane crash with Patsy Cline. That ruined touring for me and I semi-retired and took up work as a general contractor.

So you stopped fiddling?

Not altogether. I just didn’t play in bands that toured anymore. By the end of the 1960s I was in a bluegrass band called the Cumberland Mountain Boys. We made a few records for a small label and I’m happy to say the English label Stomper just brought them out on a CD called Nashville Bluegrass that features a photo of the band on the cover. I also joined a bluegrass band called the Boys from Shiloh and I did a bit of touring with some package shows...

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