So fans of this blog know of my love for Music … all kinds. It’s been a while since I did a music post on this page but I decided to wait to tell you all about the greatest musical night of my life in a very long time. If someone were to ask me “who is your favorite musician ?” I never hesitate …. I already know. I’ve been in love with his voice since the early 90s. For my 15th birthday I was given a membership to his fan club. He came to Mobile a couple of times and I got to see him all but once. One time he was performing at our local Junior Miss Pageant and my mom bought us tickets and when he finished his song we left. We were there for him, that was it, good luck ladies, Bryan is gone and so are we! I will never hesitate to see this man strum his guitar. Immediately Bryan White comes out of my mouth. Their response is usually “who?” then I give them a 45-minute dissertation of the man’s career from the 90’s to today. It’s funny to me most know his music but not necessarily his name. Mind blown every time it happens.
Here’s the short version of his “Marcy created bio” – yes this is the short version.
His first album titled “Bryan White” came out in 1994 on Asylum Records and from that first strum of a guitar I was hooked. He’s an Oklahoma native and quite proud of those roots, as displayed on his album Dustbowl Dreams to come later. He’s definitely classified as a singer-songwriter writing as many hits for himself as he has for others (remind you of anyone else that I’vetalked about on this blog?). His debut album was a great introduction to an artist. Showed his range in ballads and playful songs like Eugene You Genius which never fails to put a smile on my face. Look at Me Now was his first single ever and will forever be in my top 10 of favorite Country songs. It was however Rebecca Lynn and Someone Else’s Star that rocketed him to the top of the charts and kept him there for a while. The album earned him the CMA Horizon Award (beating out LeAnn Rimes and Shania Twain) and a nomination for Male Vocalist of the Year Award narrowly missing out to George Strait twice (1996 & 1997). He was in good company tho with fellow nominees being Vince Gill, Collin Raye Alan Jackson. Good company to sit with while King George took home the trophy.
His second album Between Now and Forever was created to build on the success of the ballads found in his Debut album and it’s fantastic because it also balances with a few fun tracks like “So Much For Pretending and Sitting on Go that keep the listener on their toes. It does tend to lean more towards ballads tho.
The Right Place continued that formula and has several songs about love, breaking up, and staying together for ever. The Star of this album was Tree of Hearts. It makes me cry every damn time.
When 1999 rolled around Asylum was struggling hard, and that’s a shame cause How Lucky I Am it a fantastic album that deserved far more love. On any other record label, it would have kept the needle on Bryan and Country music would have embraced it hard. The formula was still there but it was a more grown up Bryan behind the mic. He played with his vocal range, the lyrics were tighter, and the music was perfect from track 1 to the last track. It didn’t hurt that Bryan had recently found the love of his life and the album reflected that (again sounds like another artist I’ve talked about on this blog before ÷). There is not one track on this album that is skip worthy. If there is a perfect album on this planet this album is it. I’ll die on that hill if I have to. I listen to this album when I’m happy, when I’m tired, when I’m sad, when I’m having a good day or a bad one cause it’s literally that good. I give this album to friends as a wedding gift and force them to listen to The Staying upon their engagement cause at the end of the day that’s what it’s all about and they need to hear it.
When Asylum folded many think, Bryan fell off the planet. He retreated into himself and suffered a great depression which frankly was likely due to exhaustion. So, he walked away. So to most that is where his story ends but to me that’s where his story begins. He got married to Erika Page (who at the time was on One Life To Live), he took time off for the first time in years and just was a normal guy walking around New York City with the most beautiful woman on the planet and just stopped everything while he sorted it all out. In 2003 his first son was born and in 2005 his second was born. The music was still in him was still wanting to come out.
No longer saddled with a label telling him what he could and couldn’t do or what he needed to sound like he started recording again and released Dustbowl Dreams in 2009. By far his most personal album to date he wrote a track about Erika (his wife) and how her adoption journey led her to him, sang with Steve Wariner (the man who made him want to be a musician) and quite possibly my favorite track of all Beautiful Place. It was a wonderful Album sold through his website and I’m sure I-tunes. I’m a CD girl, I like to hold it in my hands, read the CD Jacket from page to page etc.
Then came 2014 and he decided he wanted to release another CD, this time a 6 track EP called Shine and was going to do it with the fans help through Kickstarter. I gladly handed over my money and got guitar strings and a signed drum cover for my efforts. This 6 song EP is fantastic. If it’s not in your Music folder you need to get it ASAP!
I always say my favorite Bryan White track is his next one and he has yet to disappoint me with that notion.
In 2016 he started releasing singles instead of waiting on a full CD to develop. Finally Home a nod to his Phillippines fans who thanks to a noontime variety show got “God Gave Me You” from How Lucky I Am back in the spotlight when they started using it in their show. Bryan went to the Philippines and performed a show there and went on the show. It was a crazy ride to watch but proved that his music is stronger than time. He also released a revamped version of Never Get Around to it from his “Right Place” album, making it the way he envisioned it not the way the label created it. His latest single 2019, It Must Be Love is a tribute to Don Williams and keeps him on the radar as long as you are paying attention. I stayed up until Midnight at Golden’s house once to finally be able to listen to the track when it was released and kept it on repeat all night long while I slept.
In 2011 I found out that Bryan was throwing a Back Yard BBQ at his house for the fans. I mentioned it to my mom thinking it was never going to be a thing. I was shocked when she bought me and Golden a ticket. Golden had no idea really who Bryan was tho living near me in College she had heard his music. She thought it was cool to be going to his house tho so she was in. Shes too cool for pictures tho.
I picked her up and off we went. The whole day was sketchy and scary and required a LOT of trust on my part, my mom’s part and Bryan’s part too. The night before it rained hard. They sent out a message (I want to say via Twitter and maybe Facebook) telling everyone to bring a chair instead of a blanket since sitting on the ground wasn’t going to work. We stopped at a Walgreens or it could have been a Rite Aid and bought two chairs for like $10 bucks a piece and had like 3 hours to kill. We got lunch and waited for more instructions. They were watching the weather and coming up with a back up plan incase of rain. The entire day I was a basket of nerves. It felt wrong like this was all a scam. I was texting with his manager at the time the entire day. I’m sure I annoyed him but it all just … well felt sketchy. My mom’s instructions were forget the money if you get there and it feels off leave. You and Golden are smart just stay safe. We finally got the call to meet in a random Kroger parking lot at like 3. We were nearby so we went on over and got a Wendy’s shake while we waited. Several other cars pulled up around 2:30ish.
Up to that moment that night was the best night of my life.
That’s where the history lesson ends and the post about the BEST NIGHT EVER I’ve had in a long while starts. In 2015 the Listening Room of Mobile opened in downtown Mobile. They have 3-4 shows a week with a single artist or group featured each night. I’m not going to lie if the shows didn’t start so late I might live down there but alas they do and I often only go down there when it’s someone that can get me in the seat. Vanessa Peters was one, Eric Erdman is another that can get me down there. I keep telling myself I’m going down there one day just on a whim and listen to someone I’ve never heard before and see what happens.
One day I’m sitting in my living room watching TV and scrolling Facebook as I typically do when the owner popped up on my Facebook page one day with a note telling people Bryan White would be at the Listening Room Aug 15th Tickets on Sale soon! I almost crapped myself. Wait what Bryan was coming here… to my back yard to my home town … to one of my favorite places in the city to listen to music!? I was in from there. I immediately put my name down on the list and started bugging Jim about when Tickets would be available to purchase. The next day I walked into the office and took the 16th off so I could stay as late as I needed to without worry of having to get up early. I was going to this show, was going to enjoy every second of it and immediately started making plans to have people join me. I wanted to sell that room out hard. We got about halfway there when it was all said and done. That’s ok tho cause I think Bryan had a fantastic night and I understand is already talking about coming back.
So let’s set the stage. It’s a Thursday afternoon around say 6 pm my
friend Christina (whom I roped into going with me to the show several months
ago) had just finished dinner and are kind of just walking around downtown killing
time when Christina said, oh my god is that Bryan (like they had known
each other for years.) I looked up the street and OH MY GOD IT WAS. She took off.
I caught up with her and said please don’t chase this boy down the street! At this point he was a block or so ahead of us. Then
he passed the Listening Room. I said oh god he’s lost. So off we went, now
literally chasing the man down the street. We got even with the Listening Room
and I was looking to see if anyone was inside that could “officially” go get
the boy instead of two crazy people that might scare him away for good. No one
was there that I could see and we look up the street and Bryan takes a left
down an alley between two buildings. I thought oh god he’s going to be killed (not a fantastic part of town but not the worst part either),
and we take off. We walked though the alley and look right and left and he’s
walking back up the street phone in his hand. I’m sure it was telling him he
was there because he was right behind it but you know how phones are. So
Christina yells “Bryan!!!” and he stops and turns around and I’m super embarrassed
and he yells back ”yeah!?” and he’s just watching the two of us jog up the
street towards him. She yells, “you are lost, you passed the listening room
back that way.” She started pointing and he said “I’m following yall!” and
started walking towards us. So we started walking back to the Listening Room
and he says I’ve seen you before talking to me. I said yes sir and he asked
when the last time I was at a show and I said the last show I saw was in your
backyard. He said you were at the BBQ I was like yep, then it clicked and he
said you were the one worried about the wiring in my basement! I laughed and said
yes and he said you’ll be happy to know it looks better now. I said good ha!
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| Yes … I took a picture of the wiring at the man's house that night |
Then we arrived at the Listening Room and he thanked us for being such
tour guides. We let him in to do his sound check while we smelted in front and
Christina made fun of my fangirl attitude cause she has never seen me like that
before. A few minutes later a few other fans showed up for the meet and greet
and the night was on. By the time they let us in there were 10 of us hanging
out. When they let us in we all got settled and about 10 minutes later here he came.
He told the whole room how we rescued him and it was fantastic. He mentioned it
again while he was playing. Ha! He spent about 30 minutes just talking to us
all about life, his music, what our favorite albums were and Mobile in general.
Then he took pictures with all of us before the rest of the people showed up. I
think we ended up with about half a room filled so I was happy about that. I
think next time we can easily sell it out. School started in the area this week,
there was another high profile show earlier in this week and it was just bad
timing for many. It’s a real shame they missed a fantastic night of music,
stories, and an overall good time!
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| Myself, Bryan White, and Christina by far a better picture than before |
I tried to keep up with his playlist for the night (the album the song
is from is also shown below)
- Sitting on Go - 1996 Between Now and Forever
- Amen - 2014 Shine - EP Kickstarter Album
- Look At Me Now - 1994 Bryan White
- Rebecca Lynn - 1994 Bryan White
- Love is the Right Place - 1997 The Right Place
- I’m Not Supposed to Love you Anymore - 1996 Between Now and Forever
- It Must Be Love – 2019 new single
- That’s Another Song - 1996 Between Now and Forever
- Get Back (Cover Beatles) – which I was really not expecting but loved!
- You’re Still Beautiful to - Me 1999 How Lucky I Am – since I told him that was my favorite album before he played it he said it was for me :D yes I might have squeeled a little bit
- So Much For Pretending - 1996 Between Now and Forever
- Short Are The Years (Cover Jason Crabb Unexpected) – I swear I think he said he cowrote this one for
- Someone Else’s Star - 1994 Bryan White
His stories between songs were beautiful and allowed you to really not only connect to him but to his music. Towards he end he told about his struggles with depression and expressed his reborn Christianity and I just knew he was going to play What I already know. I told him that and he said that would have been a great song to end that on and I said I know! So maybe he’ll take my comment to heart and dust off some of the other songs in his catalog the next time he comes around.
If you are new to this artist check him out
Itunes https://music.apple.com/us/artist/bryan-white/129986
Twitter https://twitter.com/bryan_white
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bryan_white/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/BryanWhiteFans/
You Tube https://t.co/aCzYyWc9UM?amp=1
Website http://www.bryanwhite.com/
Anyway this is a SUPER LONG post telling you if this man comes anywhere near you and you loved COUNTRY back when it was COUNTRY MUSIC then you need to get a ticket and get to his show. I will never miss another one as a matter of fact tomorrow he’ll be in Panama City Beach and it’s everything I can do to not make that drive.
Thank you Bryan for coming to my town, thank you Jim for getting him here and thank you Erika for letting us borrow him for a few days. You really are awesome to share him with us.
Marcy
@beaslma
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