Sarah White became involved with the growing music community in Charlottesville and played in several bands towards the end of the 90's (White Trash Cookin', Pat Nixon, Miracle Penny). At the time the record label Jagjaguwar was based out of Charlottesville (before moving to Indiana to merge with Secretly Canadian) and released her first solo album in 1997, a collection of lo-fi four-track recordings made over a 3-year period dubbed All My Skies Are Blue. In 2000, she released her second album, also on Jagjaguwar, entitled Bluebird which was more melodic and was recorded in a studio. The record garnered her a wide range of positive reviews and comparisons to artists like Cat Power and Edith Frost. Later that year she recorded and self-released Pickin' Strummin' And Singin'... The Versatile Sarah White which was a collection of early country standards and traditional songs. After remaining fairly quiet for the next several years, Sarah White returned with a new band, Sarah White & the Pearls, in 2004 with the self-released You're It EP which focused even further on melodic writing and incorporated the more traditional folk and country song structures. In 2006 she completed her next full-length album with The Pearls, White Light, which was released by Antenna Farm Records. She also performs with Sían Richards in the Acorn Sisters. Of her record Bluebird, The San Francisco Bay Guardian wrote: “A delicately bare and pretty album that ensures the singer-songwriter a place in the company of Cat Power’s Chan Marshall and Edith Frost. Yep, that good.” And Dave Matthews has written “Sarah’s music kills me, beautifully from the ground up, no plastic.” AHC: What has this journey, this life in music been like for you, the highs and the lows, and what life lessons do you feel you've picked up along the way? Sarah: My musical journey - if there has been one - has been rather haphazard. I’ve had many different iterations of myself with different bands along the way. I’ve played some big stages but then still gig in coffee shops or bars because that’s what I’m able to get together right now. I never found it possible to support myself solely through music - that used to feel like a failure somehow. But I’m older and wiser now and I realize it’s an incredibly hard life, one that very few people are able to master. That’s a good lesson. Don’t beat yourself up, just do what you can, and of course: keep writing. AHC: What first drew you to music and what was your early musical environment like growing up? Were there pivotal songs for you then that just floored you the moment you heard them? Sarah: My dad was into early country and bluegrass. We listened to a lot of his records -- most of which are now in my collection -- Bill Monroe, Stanley Brothers, Country Gentlemen, etc. My mom is more of a ‘60s folk rocker: Dylan, CSNY, Graham Parsons, Janis Joplin, Linda Ronstadt, Emmy Lou, etc. so I grew up with all of the above. My first album was My Tennessee Mountain Home by Dolly Parton. The intro is a recitation of a letter she wrote to her folks after leaving home for Nashville, followed by a bevy of songs recollecting sweet childhood memories. These images fit right in to where and how we lived, in rural West Virginia, with the fireflies and butterflies, “when the evening shadows fall”…. I listened to that record over and over, holding tight the album with beautiful Dolly on the back cover, crying my eyes out in our huge yellow arm chair. I was only 5 but I do recall the full weight of the words and music on my heart. Imagine my joy at finally catching Dolly Parton live at the Hollywood Bowl in October. When she sang Tennessee Mountain Home it was like heaven. AHC: Do you remember the first song that you ever wrote? Sarah: Yes. I can still play it too. It’s the first song that my friends started requesting back in high school…. They say angels are made of fire and ice Little boys made of sugar and spice Some people say Elvis is alive Walking the streets of Memphis… AHC: Who are some of your musical inspirations? Sarah: Dolly Parton, Blondie, Bee Gees, the Stanley Brothers, Bob Dylan, Beatles, Janis Joplin. This is the stuff I got way into at one time or another in my early years … And of course, my dad and all the folks who sat around playing music in my early years. AHC: What do you think makes for a good song, as you're writing and composing, is there a sudden moment when you know you've found the right mix, the perfect angle of light, so to speak? Sarah: I don’t have a strong ritual, a true process in place for writing. This is something I am always working on. The little moments - the flash of some inexplicable truth or the perfect turn of phrase - come fairly easily if I am open and receptive. The hard part is maintaining that effortlessness, i.e. not killing that perfect moment, in the process of capturing it. AHC: Do you consider music to be a type of healing art, the perfect vehicle through which to translate a feeling, a state of rupture, hope lost and regained? As a listener of music I have this impression, I wonder, as the artist, the creator, do you have this feeling about the power of song? Sarah: I believe this is true. Making music and writing songs was always a healing act for me. My songs are very much ripped from my own life/internal/processing. That being said, I feel like I hide enough behind my words that my songs are open to interpretation - that they can belong to the listener - and they are NOT about me. I could be completely wrong about this. AHC: What are your favorite on-tour, on-the-road memories? Sarah: Thinking.... AHC: Do you have any words of advice for young musicians and singer-songwriters out there who are trying to find their voice and their way in this world? Sarah: Not sure I do really. I feel like I’m still a young musician and songwriter trying to find my voice. Funny huh? But here’s a few things I’ve learned
AHC: Do you have any new projects in motion you'd like to tell people about? Sarah: Yes! I did a Kickstarter in 2015 to raise money for a new record. It’s being mixed right now and I’m very excited about it. I think it’s the best sounding record I’ve made. It’s got some old tracks, some new tracks; it’s basically a collection of my best songs re-imagined with the help of a talented producer. Speaking of Dolly Parton, I just sang on the Wrinkle Neck Mules version of one of her songs Down From Dover. It’s up on their page right now for download… https://wrinkleneckmules.bandcamp.com/album/entierro-2 --------------- Visit Sarah's website for more http://sarah-white.com/ Comments are closed.
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