By Paul Freeman [November 2011 Interview]

Lari White is truly a renaissance woman. Having recorded country hits, written smashes for other artists, produced chart-topping albums and acted in films, the Grammy winner is now taking on a new challenge.

White joins Kevin Cole and Ryan VanDenBoom in “Here To Stay,” a new multimedia concert celebrating the works of George and Ira Gershwin.

White hails from Florida. As a child, she joined her brothers and parents in The White Family Singers, a gospel group.

Growing up, White heard all kinds of music, from Gregorian chants to Philip Glass to Pink Floyd. She sang in rock bands. But, in college, her interest shifted to jazz. Upon graduating, however, country caught her fancy.

Winning the 1988 Nashville Network’s “You Can Be A Star” TV competition gave her a start. In Nashville, White’s songwriting blossomed.

After a few years of struggle, White signed a major label deal and broke through with her “Wishes” album, which yielded three Top 10 hits. Instead of playing it safe, she followed that with an eclectic album, appropriately titled, “Don’t Fence Me.” She has been recording wonderfully engaging albums ever since.

As an actress, White appeared in the movies “Cast Away” with Tom Hanks and “Country Strong” with Gwyneth Paltrow, as well as the Broadway show “Ring of Fire.”

White established her own record label, Skinny White Girl, and became the first woman to produce a hit album for a male superstar, Toby Keith.

She’s married to songwriter Chuck Cannon and they have three kids, ages eight to 14 - son Jaxon and daughters M’Kenzy and Kyra Ciel.

After performing a Stanford, Ca. concert on Dec., 3, White will be performing Gershwin classics on the Turner Classic Movies cruise. Also on board will be Eva Marie Saint, Ernest Borgnine, Tippi Hedren and, hosting film screenings, Robert Osborne. Then White will again turn her attention to her husband’s new album, as well as three of her own projects - jazz, gospel and singer-songwriter.

POP CULTURE CLASSICS:
Will you be bringing the Gershwin concert to other venues?

LARI WHITE:
We’re hoping to make this a touring show. Certainly Gershwin music is timeless and potent. All great things come back around. They have their initial heyday, but if they’re truly classic, truly extraordinary, they will keep coming back. It’s definitely time for the young generation of music lovers to get an opportunity to get turned on to the Gershwins.

PCC:
Why is the time right?

WHITE:
I have a teenager in the house now. And it’s been really fascinating, watching her develop her musical tastes. Of course, growing up in a house with two musician parents, and in Nashville, she has really shined a light for us on how eclectic the tastes of young music fans are, because they’ve got incredible access and an incredible ease of discovery, through the internet. She is constantly finding obscure and fantastic new music and old music. Like she discovered The Smiths three months ago. And she just freaked out! [Laughs[ She’s in love with The Smiths.

So I think it’s a great time, because the technology supports that kind of listener, that kind of music fan, more than ever right now.

PCC:
What are the elements of the Gershwin songbook that most resonate with you?

WHITE:
It’s such an amazing body of work, the Gershwin universe. There’s all the pianistic compositions, the instrumental music of George, that is so uniquely American and really classic, really timeless. Those pieces are now, and will always be, just as powerful and moving and exciting as they ever were.

And the songs, the love songs, of course, always hit everybody, because they’re simple, yet very smart and have a great sense of irony and humor that was so much a characteristic of that age, the ‘20s and ‘30s, that kind of wry humor that doesn’t get sappy. These love songs are very ironic. So they don’t come off as syrupy sweet. And that’s very relevant to younger music fans, that tone.

PCC:
Do these sorts of songs present unique challenges to you as a vocalist?

WHITE:
Yeah, definitely. I discovered the American Songbook in college and was actually a jazz vocal major... for a minute [Laughs] at the University of Miami, before I switched over to their music engineering department. But I sang a lot of Gershwin and Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen and a lot of incredible songs from that era.

While I was in college, I actually worked with a couple of different big band orchestras, in those big hotels on Miami Beach. We’d open for Bob Hope on New Year’s Eve and play all these massive, multimillion dollar weddings at the Fontainebleau and places like that.

I sang with The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra for a while in college. So I lived in that music, on and off, throughout my life. But it’s completely different. It’s like an alter ego or another personality. It’s a very different voice from like my country records or my gospel records.

PCC:
being involved in so many kinds of music, is there a common thread in what appeals to you as a vocalist, what draws you to a song?

WHITE:
It’s always the words, the lyrics. I mean, I love the melodies. I love a beautiful, soaring singable melody. But I guess what really draws me to a song, at the end of the day, is the words. And usually, I gravitate towards good stories or clever ways to unfold a familiar story

PCC:
Did your gospel roots give you a good foundation, in terms of the spiritual possibilities of music?

WHITE:
Music is like church to me. It’s as spiritual a connection as I just about ever make. All kinds of music, besides gospel, are spiritual to me. Music feels very much like that’s a gift that we’ve been given, as a species, the ability to communicate with melody, notes, instruments and the sound of a human voice. More than anything else that we experience as human beings, it may be the vehicle that most brings us together, crossing language and cultural barriers, where we really get a sense that we are not very different. So making and sharing music is a spiritual act.

PCC:
DId your parents expose you to wide array of music?

WHITE:
Oh, my Mom and Dad were so awesome. They were both teachers. Dad taught art and my Mom taught family living and childhood development. And they were both teachers for their careers, but they both loved music. My Dad had played rock ‘n’ roll guitar all through college - Chuck Berry and Elvis. My Mom had always sung and played piano. And they were performing at the community center for fellowship dinners and things like that, as a young couple.

In my house, growing up, I remember, when I was in elementary school, having a nice collection of pop, rock, like Joni MItchell and James Taylor and Carole King, that world. But then, they also had the entire Time-Life boxed set, ‘The History of Music,’ from Gregorian chant up through Stravinksy and Philip Glass. This was, of course, on vinyl. And they really splurged on their little teachers’ salaries and got a really nice stereo system with really good speakers and a really good turntable. It still works to this day [Laughs]. And so, we would listen to an afternoon of Bach fugues and then we would put on some Bee Gees.

Oh, my God, I remember when my Dad brought home the ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ album. I just thought that was the most revelatory, amazing piece of creativity I’d ever heard. I just sat with the headphones and the big album, where you could turn the pages and there was all this great graphic design. I would just sit for hours and listen to it, top to bottom.

PCC:
And you must have been so young at the time.

WHITE:
I was. I didn’t even realize it at the time, but now I look back and think, ‘Wow, that was really cool for my Dad to bring home ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ [Laughs]. And then there was gospel. There was always all kinds of music in my house.

PCC:
You sang jazz in college. How did you veer off into country?

WHITE:
Well, I guess a lot of it was a reaction against what was happening in pop music at the time. I had sung with these big bands and jazz trios and really enjoyed that. But it didn’t feel like my career start, like that was where I belonged most. And I was singing with Top 40 bands, too, in these clubs, doing Madonna covers and Tears For Fears and stuff like that.

And everything, all the music on pop radio at that time, was made with machines, with sequencers and drum machines and synthesizers. I remember thinking, many times, ‘I just want to hear a real instrument. Can I just hear an acoustic guitar? And a friend of mine turned me on to a talent show that was going on in Nashville at the time. This was like the late ‘80s. And on the little Nashville Network, that was a cable channel that was based out of Nashville. And it was a talent show for country music.

Around that same time, Rodney Crowell’s ‘Diamonds & Dirt’ came out and The Trio album with Dolly and Emmylou and Linda Ronstadt. There were several records came out that were definitely not mainstream, not pop. I heard those records and the honesty of the songwriting and the incredible mastery of the instruments that were being played... and they were acoustic instruments and I just decided I needed to go to Nashville.

So I came and did this talent show and I won the talent show. And that was a nice way to kind of get validated that this was a good place to start. And I loved it from the moment I landed.

PCC:
Entering the competition, did you view that as like buying a lottery ticket? Or were you confident you actually had a shot at winning?

WHITE:
Oh, I, for good or ill, I am always convinced that I am going to nail it, I’m going to win, I’m going to succeed. I don’t think you can go into the arts or any kind of performing field without that belief... whether it’s true or not is completely immaterial. You just have to have that much belief in what you’re doing. Otherwise, it’s so hard. And you get rejected and knocked down so many times, if you didn’t have that kind of belief in what you were doing, you just wouldn’t stay in it, you wouldn’t survive. So, yeah, I was convinced I had a shot [Laughs]. I was going for it.

PCC:
Some people would have thought, after a win like that, ‘Oh, now I’ve got it made.’ But you realized it was only a beginning?

WHITE:
Oh, gosh, yes, definitely. It brought me to Nashville. It was a nice chunk of change, that was part of the prize. Between that and the money I had saved working in college in different bands and doing sessions and stuff, I didn’t have to get a day job, when I moved to Nashville. And so, I spent the entire first year writing songs, going out to hear other songwriters and artists, meeting people, writing more songs, meeting songwriters that needed a demo song. And just started to make relationships in town and kind of find my place. And it was still several years before I actually signed my first record deal. So I knew it was definitely a door opening, but I knew I wasn’t yet where I wanted to be.

PCC:
You mean the RCA deal, not that initial Capitol deal?

WHITE:
Well, the Capitol deal was part of the prize package of the talent show. So it was an excellent experience in just how that system works. And it wasn’t for a full album. It was just for a single. So it was a great like higher education experience, but it wasn’t the same situation as like ‘American Idol’ now, where there’s quite a bit more investment in the recording careers of the artists who are on the big national shows, talent shows now. It was really more like this is a little sampler of what the business is like, but I don’t think it was really a way to break a new act.

But my first record deal was a few years later, after I had been writing songs and singing around town and kind of getting my music out there.

PCC:
Had the writing started earlier?

WHITE:
I started a little bit in college, but, when I moved to Nashville, and was surrounded with writers day and night, I mean, there’s something in the water here that just feeds writers. There’s such a sense of community about that craft. I definitely did not get serious about it until I had been in Nashville for a while. I was looking at these other writers, going, ‘Man, they are working really hard. I didn’t know it was this hard.’

PCC:
Before the RCA deal, were there periods, where you were discouraged?

WHITE:
Oh, my gosh, it’s a very complex ego manifestation, I think. You have to believe in yourself and keep going, keep trying, keep picking yourself up. But it is just a brutal business to make yourself the commodity, make yourself the product. If people like the product, that’s great. They like you. But if they don’t like the product, they don’t like you. It’s impossible not to take it personally, you know, because you are selling yourself, your soul - this is who I am in my music.

So yeah, definitely low points. I got down to my last $30 in my checking account at one point and I was like, ‘I am really in trouble’ [Laughs]. I was really not sure what I was going to do. I didn’t want to leave. And I got home from being out that day and there was a voicemail on my machine, saying, ‘Hey, Lari, I need a demo sung. I’ve got 40 bucks for you. Can you come down and sing this song?’ There was a lot of moments like that, where it got down to what separates the men from the boys. And I kept hanging in. I just couldn’t see myself doing anything else. I couldn’t imagine any kind of happy life in any other career or profession or world.

PCC:
You toured with Rodney Crowell?

WHITE:
I did tour with him. It was my introduction to true, major label, big star touring. Rodney had the dream band of all time. He had John Leaventhal, Albert Lee, Jim Horn, Eddy Bayers, Michael Rhodes. I mean, he had the cream of the cream of the crop. And all on stage at one time. And I was singing backup for Rodney. But Rodney was also letting me front the band - he was just handing the whole band over to me. He’d let me work up some of my original songs with that band. And letting me come out in the middle of his show and do a couple of my songs, two or three songs. An incredible education. And also, Rodney’s one of the most generous humans on the planet. A very generous way to help me, to get me exposure and some recognition.

PCC:
Once you had the breakthrough with the RCA deal and the ‘Wishes’ album, did you start to get comfortable or just worry about how you were going to stay up there?

WHITE:
This is a perfect example of my musical ADD. [Laughs] I was so happy to have radio success with ‘Wishes’ and have the number one video and be nominated for awards. I was really thrilled with that. But what do I do? It’s time to make my next album and all I can think is, ‘I don’t want to do the same thing again. I do not want to be one of those artists that finds the formula that works and then just does that again and again and again.’

So the title of my next album was, ‘Don’t Fence Me In.’ And I had done like a rockabilly cover of that old swing song. It was a very eclectic album. It was kind of inspired by ‘Dark Side of the Moon.’ It had all this connective musical tissue that brought you from one song into the next and all these little bit and pieces that weren’t full songs. And it was very much a concept. I was already kind of chafing in the corral, to just experiment, like, ‘Okay, I’ve got my fans, now let’s go on an adventure, go someplace else.’

PCC:
What took you into acting?

WHITE:
I always looked at Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand as like the penultimate examples of artistry, where they were skilled in every medium. They could perform live singing. They could act, have a TV show. They could dance. They could entertain in whatever medium or context.

I did lots of music theatre shows, when I was a kid. And I started studying acting, when I came to Nashville, with Ruth Sweet, who is an amazing coach and had created the Acting Studio here in Nashville. So I actually made most of my living as an actress in Nashville, while I was trying to get my record deal. I did mostly theatre. I was in an improv comedy troupe in a little theatre down towards Franklin. I did several shows with the Tennessee Repertory company, got my Equity card. So it was always kind of integrated right in there with everything else that I was doing

So it was the characters, the storytelling that I loved. And it actually made me a much better songwriter, I think, finding a voice for a character and a vernacular that’s really honest and consistent. And how to let a story unfold, dramatically, where the meat of your story is.

PCC:
And those experiences on ‘Cast Away’ and ‘Country Strong,’ did those just whet your appetite to do more film acting?

WHITE:
I love film. It is just such a surreal kind of work. I really enjoy it. I don’t think I could do it exclusively as my sole field of work. But yeah, I would love to do a movie every couple of years or something. Because it’s a fascinating practice, that practice of acting for a camera.

PCC:
It had to be a thrill appearing in a Broadway show

WHITE:
It was. That was the hardest I think I’ve ever worked in my life. But it was a thrill. Opening night on Broadway - that’s heady stuff.

PCC:
Another adventure, starting your own label, was that daunting or just exciting?

WHITE:
All of the above. But it’s such a strong and unique community here, this community of songwriters who have written all these huge hits for superstar artists, but nobody knows their names. So I wanted to create a place where those artists could make their music and be heard and be exposed. And there’s a lot of fans out there who love the songs enough to go to the next level and check out that song performed by the songwriter. And that’s like the true experience. That’s like the essential oil of that song’s performance, I think.

PCC:
And this landmark, being the first woman to produce for a male superstar, does that mean there was a lot of skepticism to overcome?

WHITE:
I don’t know if skepticism is quite the word. It’s just endless tides of ‘This is how it’s always been.’ The tide is definitely turning. But it’s very slow. A very, very large and slow-moving tide.

And again, if I were focusing solely on that and pursuing production as my focus, my goal... I believe the opportunities are out there and I don’t think the skepticism is insurmountable at all. But it would require a lot of commitment and dedication. I just finished an album on an awesome young band from Asheville, North Carolina. I’m working with projects, where I really love the music.

PCC:
While wanting to capture the essence of an artist, do you want to put your imprint on a project as producer, as well?

WHITE:
There are two styles of producing, to oversimplify it. There’s like the Mutt Lange approach or the Phil Spector approach, where the producer is as much of an artist, in the process, as the artist. You can hear the voice of the producer in everything that they do. And then there’s the Peter Collins school, where the producer is more transparent and more interested in helping the artist find whatever is unique about them and not wanting, one project to the next, to sound similar. That’s more where I am.

PCC:
What about the songwriting? Do you have different approaches, as far as writing for yourself or for other artists?

WHITE:
Yeah. That’s a little bit like an acting job. You can put different hats on and put your creative mind in different situations and certainly set a goal like, ‘I want to write a fun, rockin’ country song.’ But there are still those songs that come just unbidden, that are just given to you and you have no goal but to not screw it up [Laughs] as it’s coming down.

PCC:
Working with your husband, do you find that enriches the relationship, having that extra bond?

WHITE:
You know, it always did... until we had three children [Laughs]. We don’t get a lot of opportunity to work together now, because we really want to be with our kids and be the ones to drive them places. So we haven’t written or recorded as much in the last few years as we used to. But it is such a strong bond that we share. I know it’s always there.

PCC:
How old are the kids?

WHITE:
My oldest is 14 and I have a 12-year-old and eight-year-old.

PCC:
At this point, what are the biggest challenges with maintaining the career? And what are the rewards that make it all worthwhile?

WHITE:
For me, the biggest challenge has come since being a mother, because I so value and respect that relationship and that responsibility. And, at the same time, the music is like another child in some ways. No, it’s more like a lover that keeps pulling at you, like, ‘You are not giving me enough attention. You’re losing me. I’m going to leave you.’ [Laughs] It’s been called a jealous mistress and I think about that phrase often, because I can’t say that I ever feel like I’ve got a good balance. I always feel like I’m cheating one or the other. I’m missing time with my family or I have put my creativity on the altar. So I would say that’s the biggest challenge for me.

WHITE:
But the reward is, that I have never had to have a real job [Laughs]. Chuck and I have looked at each other many times in the last couple of years and said, ‘Aren’t you glad that we are self-employed musicians, in this rough economy, in these awful rough times, when so many people are really, really struggling?’ We’re feeling the pinch, just like everybody else, except Donald Trump, I guess. But we feel very, very fortunate that we are sustained by what we love so much, what we are so passionate about, what we would do whether anybody was paying us or not.

PCC:
With all you’ve accomplished, are there still goals you’re burning to attain?

WHITE:
Oh, that’s part of the disease, part of the whole neurosis. I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished anything. I mean, I’ll go for weeks feeling like, ‘You are such a loser. You haven’t done anything, really. [Laughs]. Where’s your next album? Why don’t you have a hit on the charts right now?’ It’s vicious.

PCC:
Anything on the creative burner now?

WHITE:
My husband is recording his newest album. And I haven’t gotten to be as integral a part of that as I would have liked. But we are going to finish that project, hopefully in the next few months. And I have started two or three different album projects - a jazz trio album, a gospel album, and a collection of just random, singer-songwriter-like songs. And I don’t know which one I will finish first. I don’t know what will end up grabbing my attention and actually make me focus long enough to finish.

PCC:
You’re quite the juggler. You must never be bored.

WHITE:
I’m never bored. Ever. Ever. I don’t think I’ve ever uttered that word.

Visit the artist’s website, www.lariwhite.com.