page_title: Clarence White
section_title: The Byrds
hierarchical_section_title: Clarence White / The Byrds
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Popgroep de "Byrds" arriveert op Schiphol; de Byrds. V.l.n.r. Roger McGuinn, Skip Battin, Clarence White, Gene Parsons. *23 juni 1970
context_page_description: Clarence White, was an American bluegrass and country guitarist and singer. He is best known as a member of the bluegrass ensemble the Kentucky Colonels and the rock band the Byrds, as well as for being a pioneer of the musical genre of country rock during the late 1960s.
  White also worked extensively as a session musician, appearing on recordings by the Everly Brothers, Joe Cocker, Ricky Nelson, Pat Boone, the Monkees, Randy Newman, Gene Clark, Linda Ronstadt, Arlo Guthrie, and Jackson Browne among others. Together with frequent collaborator Gene Parsons, he invented the B-Bender, a guitar accessory that enables a player to mechanically bend the B-string up a whole tone and emulate the sound of a pedal steel guitar. White was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Fame in 2016.
context_section_description: Following the abrupt departure from the Byrds of singer and guitarist Gram Parsons in July 1968, White was invited to join the group as a full-time member, remaining until the band was finally dissolved by lead guitarist Roger McGuinn in February 1973.  This extended tenure with the band makes White the second longest-serving member of the Byrds after McGuinn.  White was brought into the group at bass player Chris Hillman's suggestion, as someone who could handle the band's older rock material and their newer country-flavored repertoire.
  Once he was a member of the Byrds, White began to express dissatisfaction with the band's current drummer, Kevin Kelley.  Before long, he had persuaded McGuinn and Hillman to replace Kelley with his friend from the recently dissolved Nashville West, Gene Parsons (no relation to Gram).
  Hillman quit the Byrds within a month of White joining, in order to form the Flying Burrito Brothers with Gram Parsons.  At around this same time, White and Gene Parsons undertook some informal rehearsing and recording with Hillman and Gram Parsons, as part of a prototype version of the Burrito Brothers.  However, the pair declined an invitation to join the new country rock group and instead opted to stay with McGuinn's new-look Byrds.
  The White-era version of the Byrds, featuring McGuinn, White and Parsons, along with bassists John York (September 1968–September 1969) and Skip Battin (September 1969–February 1973), released five albums and toured relentlessly between 1969 and 1972.  Journalist Steve Leggett has noted that, although the original line-up of the Byrds gets the most attention and praise, the latter-day version, featuring McGuinn and White's dual lead guitar work, was regarded by critics and audiences as much more accomplished in concert than any previous configuration of the band had been.  Similarly, authors Scott Schinder and Andy Schwartz have commented that although the White-era Byrds failed to achieve the commercial success of the original line-up, the group were a formidable live act and a consistently in-demand attraction on the touring circuit.  The authors also cited the Byrds' archival release Live at the Fillmore – February 1969 as a good example of the White-era band's musical potency.  Rolling Stone journalist David Fricke has commented on White's contribution to the band, by noting, "with his powerful, impeccable tone and melodic ingenuity, White did much to rebuild the creative reputation of the Byrds and define the road-hearty sound of the group at the turn of the '70s."
  The first Byrds' album to feature White as a full member was Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde, which was released in early 1969.  The album included a re-recording of the Gene Parsons and White-penned instrumental "Nashville West", as well as a rendition of the traditional song "Old Blue", which was the first Byrds' recording to utilize the StringBender.  The Ballad of Easy Rider album followed in November 1969, on which White could be heard leading the band through a rendition of the traditional song "Oil in My Lamp", representing the guitarist's first lead vocal performance as a Byrd.
  1970 saw the Byrds release the double album (Untitled), which consisted of one LP of live concert recordings and another of new studio recordings.  Upon release, the album was a critical and commercial success on both sides of the Atlantic, peaking at number 40 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and reaching number 11 on the UK Albums Chart.  Two of the album's studio recordings featured White singing lead vocals: a cover version of the Lowell George composition "Truck Stop Girl" and a rendition of Leadbelly's "Take a Whiff on Me" (the latter also featured White playing mandolin).  In addition, excerpts from an instrumental jam, recorded during the (Untitled) album sessions and logged in the Columbia Records' files under the title of "Fifteen Minute Jam", were later released as "White's Lightning" and "White's Lightning Pt.2" on The Byrds box set and the remastered double CD version of (Untitled) respectively.
  The 1971 Byrdmaniax album saw Whi
caption: Clarence White (third from left) on tour with the Byrds in the Netherlands, June 1970.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "Popgroep de \"Byrds\" arriveert op Schiphol; de Byrds\n*23 juni 1970", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2013:09:16 14:33:40", "Image Artist": "Joost Evers / Anefo", "Image Copyright": "http://proxy.handle.net/10648/ab9a6ab0-d0b4-102d-bcf8-003048976d84", "Image ExifOffset": "352", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "490", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6437", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2887", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2165"}