Jean-Marie Redon News - European Bluegrass Music Association

themselves a ‘serious guitarist’
without at least some knowledge
of Clarence White, the
man behind the content on these
pages and discs.
CD-1
Disc One contains 14
tunes with lead guitar played by
a teen-aged Clarence White,
with Kentucky Colonels band
mates Roger Bush & Billy Ray
Lathum on rhythm guitar.
These tunes were recorded by
Clarence in 1962 for use by
some of his guitar students. The
first disc also contains CD-
ROM video in the Windows
Media format (.wmv files). It
includes The Kentucky Colonels
Slide Show; plus close-up
video of Clarence playing Soldier’s
Joy and The Crawdad
Song.
CD-2
As if all this was not
enough, Disc Two contains
rhythm tracks with Roland
White on (guitar) and Missy
Raines (bass). You can practice
playing lead to their rhythm
tracks at your own pace, since
the authors have graciously included
slow and fast tempos.
An unintended
bonus of CD-2 is the
fact that Roland and
Missy’s guitar &
bass tracks are excellent
examples of
solid, no-nonsense
backup to learn and
to live by! For even
more fun, you can
use these rhythm
tracks to play along
using any instrument.
Some Bluegrass
Europe readers
may have seen Clarence perform
with The New Kentucky
Colonels on the European Continent
or in the UK in 1973. The
background information in this
book and two-CD set may be of
special interest to you. The
Kentucky Colonels’ concert in
Sweden is well known for the
live album that was recorded
and released of that performance.
Roland has announced he
is preparing to re-release The
White Brothers: Live In Sweden.
For fans and friends of
Clarence White already familiar
with his life and music, there
will be some pleasant surprises.
For some of us the personal stories
of brother Roland told in
this publication (with help from
family and friends) will generate
fond memories of our relatively
short period of time with
Clarence.
There have been countless
instructional books, CDs and
videos published for musicians
through the years. Some are average,
some are very good,
some are outstanding. However
this “Essential Clarence White”
collection quite possibly offers
more variety and user-friendly
instructional material than most,
if not all previous publications
until now.
The authors describe their
project as follows:
“This book/CD set presents
Clarence's early but
fully realized acoustic guitar
style, as demonstrated
in the recordings he made
at home in 1962. These
songs were included in
the "33 Acoustic Guitar
Instrumentals"
CD. The book isn't a survey
of his entire career but
rather focuses on the core
elements of his early
style. Our intent is to provide
an entry point for intermediate
players to understand
and begin to play
in this style, and to impart
the flavor of Clarence's
early musical environment.”
I’ll go one step further
and add that perhaps advanced
beginners, and even more experienced
players, may also
benefit from this in-depth study.
Clarence and Roland White (1973). Photo by Frank Chino
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