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32 The Nashville Musician April-June 2007
Bryan White on the verge of a comeback
Bryan White at a music festival.
By WALT TROTT
“Out Of the Storm” seems an apt title for
singer-songwriter Bryan White’s comeback
album.
For five years, Bryan was among
Nashville’s brightest stars, boasting platinum
albums, four #1chartings, a Grammy-nominated
Top Five pop duet with Shania Twain,
best newcomer awards from the Academy of
Country Music, Country Music Association,
CMT and TNN/Music City News.
Bryan was in hog heaven. People magazine
named him among America’s 50 Most
Beautiful People, and he was the hero’s voice
for the animated Warner Bros. film feature
“Quest For Camelot.”
Before the new millennium set in, however,
his star was descending, as airplay and
record sales plummeted, suddenly he found
himself without a label, isolated from fans and
friends and his psyche suffered severely.
At this year’s Country Radio Seminar,
we’re happy to report meeting up with a more
mature White, who fills us in on his growing
young family, and a brand new album that’s
seeing him “Out Of the Storm.”
“Our record doesn’t have a street date yet,
as we’re still in negotiation with a label,”
Bryan points out. “But there’s a sneak peek of
the album available at iTunes and
WalMart.com - it’s like a five-song EP, so
people can at least check out what’s coming.”
Apparently, White’s found stability and
happiness with wife Erika, a daytime drama
actress on ABC-TV’s One Life To Live when
they met.
“You know the music business has its ups
and downs, as do other businesses,” beams
Bryan. “The last five years have been a little
quieter for me, which in a most important way
has been good. My wife and I have been raising
a family. We have two sons, a 3-1/2-yearold
(Justin) and a boy a year-and-a-half (Jackson).
So you see we’ve been concentrating on
our family.
“At the same time, I’ve been busy cultivating
my songwriting. Yes, I’ve been writing a
lot and producing other artists, and now I’ve
finally got my own project together. So I’m
back at it, getting ready to release it and go
back out there on the road to do this thing
again.”
As a writer, White’s co-authored songs for
others, notably Sawyer Brown’s “I Don’t Believe
in Goodbye” (#4, 1995), Diamond Rio’s
“Imagine That” (#4, 1997), and album cuts for
artists like Joe Diffie, Lila McCann and
Wynonna. Bryan also co-wrote his first 1994
Top 20 success “Look At Me Now,” and later
“So Much For Pretending,” charting #1 on
Sept. 21, 1996, for two weeks.
White’s first Billboard charting was “Eugene,
You Genius” (#48, 1994). He had his
first #1 “Someone Else’s Star,” Sept. 9, 1995,
followed by “Rebecca Lynn” on Jan. 6, 1996.
His final charttopper to date is “Sittin’ On Go,”
which took top spot March 1, 1997.
Despite all that history, Bryan still possesses
movie star good looks and at age 33 is young
enough to get back in the ballgame again:
“That I feel fortunate for. I got my first record
deal at 19, and you don’t know who you are
as an artist at that young age, much less as a
person. So it’s a blessing to have come through
all that and come out on the other end normal
(smiling, he adds) somewhat, I’ll let you be
the judge of that. Anyway, I feel I’m at a point
again where I can still feasibly do this.”
Is Erika, whom he wed Oct. 14, 2000, acting
nowadays?
“It’s interesting that you ask that. She hasn’t
for the last three or four years, but she’s been
in L.A. all of February for the pilot season
(previewing potential new programs). She’s
there right now. It’s really awesome for me to
see her start shining again and doing what she
loves to do. There’s something working right
now, but I can’t say what that is just yet.
“I’ve actually been playing Mr. Mom for
the past few weeks. So you see I’ve learned a
lot and my respect for her has gone up even
higher, having had to deal with the kids 24/7.
But I’m glad she’s doing it again. It makes me
excited for what the future may hold for her
and I. If we work at it, I feel we’ll always be
able to maintain a balance and keep our
lifestyle normal, as well.”
An Oklahoma native, Bryan Shelton White
was born Feb. 17, 1974, and began playing
drums at 5. Among his first professional gigs
was playing in his parents’ music group. At
17, Bryan started playing guitar, as well.
At 18, he moved to Nashville, landing a
writer’s berth at Glen Campbell’s music publishing
house. A year later, Asylum’s Kyle
Lehning signed him to a recording pact.
“Bryan White” and his sophomore album
“Between Now and Forever” both sold more
than a million units each, over the next two
years. His third CD, “The Right Place,” sold
gold (signaling just under a million in sales),
White with music hero Steve Wariner and (from left) TV host Charlie Chase,
Neal McCoy and LeAnn Rimes in October 1997.
Young Bryan White marks two plantinum awards, along with team members (from left)
manager Marty Gamblin, co-manager Stan Schneider, producer Kyle Lehning, White,
co-producer Billy Joe Walker, Jr., and Asylum label CEO Joe Mansfield.
and produced the Top Five single “Love Is The
Right Place.” Follow-ups, “One Last Miracle”
and “Tree of Hearts,” were class songs, but the
young label was experiencing growing pains
and the releases failed to register radio strength.
Meanwhile, Bryan toured with super hot
stars like Vince Gill and LeAnn Rimes, attracting
sell-out crowds across the nation.
After Lehning left the label in 1998, Evelyn
Shriver became the first president of a major
Nashville label at Asylum. “From This Moment
On,” Bryan’s duet with Shania Twain, marked
the 24-year-old’s last Top 10 country charting.
In fairness to Shriver, White’s then-current album
“How Lucky I Am” met with some caustic
criticism from reviewers, who labeled it too
pop, and so his successive singles stalled at Top
40.
“The one-dimensional song selections turns
it into bubble gum,” penned a scribe. “Somehow,
White has vocally become a caricature of
himself. He offers more breath and less tone,
which only underscores that bubble gum attitude.”
Asylum did release a “Dreaming of Christmas”
album and the requisite “Greatest Hits”
collection, before sealing his fate, by shutting
down.
So how did White cope with the critical
caterwauls at the time? “Not well. I didn’t
handle criticism back then and it used to anger
me a lot. Remember, I was still very young, so
with the angst you have at that age, I found it
affected me in an emotional way. For a few
years after that record, it did send me into I
would say a certain level of depression.
“It was a combination of that, not getting
played in ’99 and my label folding, that
prompted the need in me of really wanting to
take a break. It had to happen. I just sort of
took a breath and went, ‘You know what, as
bad as I hate to say it, I’m going to stop for
awhile and go find out who I am.’
“I did and to answer your question fully,
yes it used to bother me, but now I’m at a place
in my life where I can take criticism and turn it
into positive energy and learn something from
it. I don’t have to buy into what they say, because
I know who I am, but I can still go, ‘Well,
maybe this is why they said that and maybe I
should at least try to consider what they’re saying,
because it may make me better in the long
run.’
“Another thing I’ve learned in this business
is you’ve got to not be afraid to say no. Now I
know you can really run yourself ragged, if you
let other people do that to you. You’ve got to
be able to say no, because maybe you promised
your kid you’d be there for him, or maybe
we’re going to take a week off and go somewhere.
I mean you can’t please everybody anyway,
and if you don’t know how to say no,
you’re not going to have a balance in your life.
You gotta be who you are and yeah, be accessible
to a certain extent, but when it’s time for
family, you gotta be able to say no.
“A lot of my early career was a lot of that
and I think I really burned myself out,” he
frowns. “A part of you is afraid to not do a
particular thing, as that may be the one thing
that will catapult you into a new level. It’s
just wisdom and having people around you
that are not afraid to tell you what you need
to know, as opposed to what you want to
hear.”
Does today’s Bryan White possess more
confidence?
“I think so. In some ways, yes, and in other
ways, no.”
How has he changed? “I think the thing
that’s changed most is my attitude, as we discussed
earlier. Vocally, I think I sound the
same, but I’ve become a smarter singer. What
I mean is, I used to be all about, ‘OK I want
to sing with these vocal acrobatics to impress
people and my peers.’ Well, that was being
naive and young and just being green. Now I
realize that it’s not all about singing all those
licks and jumping through hoops vocally that
sell the song or that translate a lyric for somebody.
It’s about just singing it and being real
and holding those moments for precise times
in the song dynamically that makes a greater
impact.”
So what’s new on the forthcoming album
that excites Bryan?
“I’ll give you just a quick synopsis of tunes
that I wrote for the project. Again, in the last
five or six years, a lot has happened to me, so
there’s a lot to write about. It’s not uncommon
to anybody else out there, but it’s great
to be able to write about my personal stuff in
song, whether it be having a dad that’s an alcoholic
or just things that inspire me that my
kids do or my wife says to me.
“There’s a song called ‘The Little Things’
that I wrote, inspired by my wife and children.
It think it’s a really cool song, which a
lot of people respond to just hearing it on my
website and at my shows. It’s been incredible.
“Then there’s a song about my dad, who’s
been an alcoholic most of my life. It’s a song
I had to write, not to go to radio or to win
people over, but to help me heal a bit and to
cope with the situation, and have a hopeful
song to maybe help my dad and other people
out there dealing with the same issue. It’s
called ‘When You Come Around.’ I hope it
encourages people like him to know that we’ll
be there when you get through this.
“Then there’s obviously stuff that showcases
some of the roots and R&B parts of me
that’s always going to make it into my music.
Everything’s a little more acoustic-based than
usual. In the past, because of politics, I was
never permitted to play on a lot of my stuff.
So, it’s really neat to be in a position where I
can call those shots, man.
“Independently, I’ve learned enough to
know that I’m not the kind of guy that’s so
biased, he has to do everything. I mean if
there’s something I know that I’m not as good
at, I know to hand that off to somebody else.
I don’t play on everything, but I do play on
some stuff.
“I’ve always maintained a team, no matter
how great or small. In a rebuilding pro-