Roland White, a mandolinist, guitarist, and vocalist, who pioneered bluegrass music in Southern California, has died. He had a long, creative, and influential performing career with top bands Bill Monroe & The Bluegrass Boys, the Nashville Bluegrass Band, the Kentucky Colonels, Country Gazette, the Dreadful Snakes, and Lester Flatt & The Nashville Grass, and also with his own Roland White Band. The cause of his death was complications following a heart attack. He was 83 years old.
White’s recording career covered traditional bluegrass, but also explored the boundaries of the genre, mixing bluegrass with swing, jazz, country, gospel, and rock. He was the first to bring bluegrass music to network television.
White was a French Canadian who was born in rural northern Maine and came to Burbank, California with his family in 1954. His original surname was LeBlanc, French for White, which was adopted by the family as their new English name in California. In his early career, Roland performed in a family bluegrass band with his brothers Eric and Clarence and his sister Joanne. They came from a large musical family which included their father Eric and several uncles who played acoustic instruments.
Roland’s rise to bluegrass fame was rapid once the family band The Country Boys switched from country to bluegrass in 1955 after Roland heard a recording by the Father of Bluegrass. The brothers added Bill Ray Lathum on banjo and LeRoy Mack on Dobro, and came to the attention of Andy Griffith, which led to the band’s multiple appearances on the CBS Network’s Andy Griffith Show during the 1961 season. The Country Boys later became the Kentucky Colonels and performed at festivals across the country before the end of the folk revival caused work for the band to diminish.
Roland White performed at Santa Cruz Bluegrass Society concerts and at various Northern California festivals with three of his bands. He is best known to Northern California bluegrass fans as a member of the Nashville Bluegrass Band and as a popular instructor at area bluegrass camps.
After Roland left Lester Flatt’s band and his brother Clarence left The Byrds in 1973, the two reunited as the leaders of the New Kentucky Colonels. This collaboration was sadly cut short when Roland was seriously injured and Clarence died when they were hit by a drunk driver while loading out sound equipment following a band performance. Roland then continued his career with the popular and influential LA bluegrass and alt-country band, Country Gazette.
Roland Joseph White was inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in 2017. In his later years, he was a volunteer sound engineer at the Station Inn in Nashville, where he organized an annual Monroe Appreciation Night. He is survived by his wife Diane.
