Buck White, the mandolin and piano playing patriarch of country/bluegrass family group The Whites, died today at 8:00 a.m., Nashville time. He was 94 years of age and had been in ill health for some time.
Born H.S. White in 1934 in Oklahoma City, as a young boy he changed his name to Buck in honor of Buck Jones, a radio and movie cowboy star who worked in Oklahoma that was an idol of sorts to young Buck White. It stayed with him to the end.
The White family moved from Oklahoma to Wichita Falls, TX when he was but a few months old, and he was raised in the rich musical environment in Texas. Hid dad was a buck dancer, a skill Buck also mastered, but he didn’t take up music until he was a teen, starting with piano. The mandolin captured his attention as a senior in high school.
By the 1950s he was performing with honky tonk country bands in Texas and Oklahoma, often with his wife, Pat Goza, who he met and married in 1952. In Texas, he played shows on piano with artists like Hank Snow and Ernest Tubb. Pat and Buck, with their two oldest daughters, Cheryl and Sharon, moved to Fort Smith, AR, where they formed their first group, The Down Home Folks, with Arnold and Peggy Johnson.
1971 was the year that a successful show at Bill Monroe’s festival in Bean Blossom, IN convinced them to move to Nashville and pursue the music business professionally. They billed as Buck White & The Down Home Folks, and White resisted the several opportunities to become a sideman with other groups, supplementing what the band brought in with plumbing work, though he did a few shows with James Monroe as a Midnight Rambler.
Pat retired from the band in ’73 to raise their two younger daughters. They released a couple more album as Buck White & The Down Home Folks, in particular a live album recorded at Randy Wood’s Pickin’ Parlor that drew some notice in 1977.
Their first album as The Whites came in 1980 with More Pretty Girls Than One, which featured Buck on mandolin, Sharon on guitar, and Cheryl on bass, along with fellow rising stars Jerry Douglas on reso-guitar, Sam Bush and (producer) Ricky Skaggs on fiddle, and David Grisman on mandolin.
The next year Sharon married Ricky Skaggs, and The Whites were catapulted by his country star which began rising in 1982. They scored a number of country radio hits in the “back to tradition” movement that categorized ’80s country, and were made members of the Grand Ole Opry in 1984. A duet that Ricky and Sharon recorded, Love Can’t Ever Get Better Than This, won a CMA award for Vocal Duo of the Year in 1987, one of many awards that came to The Whites.
Though much of the tributes to The Whites centered on Sharon and Cheryl, Buck was a fine vocalist himself, and he especially liked singing gospel music.
Buck continued to perform and record, both with The Whites, and with others, appearing with his daughters in the 2000 film, O Brother, Where Art Thou, and on the subsequent record-breaking Down From The Mountain tour. He was included on A Skaggs Family Christmas, Volume One, and on several Christmas tours under that name. Buck was also chosen to appear on the 2006 all-star project, Bluegrass Mandolin Extravaganza, alongside Sam Bush, David Grisman, Ronnie McCoury, Jesse McReynolds, Bobby Osborne, Ricky Skaggs, and Frank Wakefield.
For many years a Buck White International Mandolin Championship was held in Kerrville, TX, once won by Mark O’Connor.
Buck was recognized throughout his life not only for his musicianship, but also for his cheerful attitude and giant smile. He was a friend to countless artists and industry folks in Nashville and beyond, and will be long remembered for his kindness and humility.
Simply put, Buck White was a giant in bluegrass and country music, and will be sorely missed.
No information has been shared as yet about funeral arrangements.
R.I.P., Buck White.
