Bluegrass music has lost another one of the greats: Buck White, beloved mandolin player and leader of the family band which bore his name, The Whites, passed away yesterday at the age of 94.
His son-in-law, Ricky Skaggs, posted on Facebook, “The Lord answered our prayers and took our daddy, Buck White, home peacefully this morning. . . .”
Born in Oklahoma City and raised in Texas, Buck grew up within a rich musical environment. He began playing piano and mandolin as a teenager, and following high school he performed in various honky tonk country bands in Texas and Oklahoma, and even went on to play back up for some of the greats of that era, such as Hank Snow and Ernest Tubb. He met and married his wife Pat in 1952 and later formed a family band with her and their two oldest daughters, Sharon and Cheryl, which was at first called Buck White & The Down Home Folks and later simply The Whites.
Their first album as The Whites, More Pretty Girls Than One, was released in 1980, and featured several other up-and-coming bluegrass musicians, such as Jerry Douglas (dobro), Sam Bush (producer), Dave Grisman (mandolin), and Ricky Skaggs (fiddle). The following year, Sharon married Ricky Skaggs, with whom she also recorded several successful numbers (and won a CMA Award for Vocal Duo of the Year in 1987) while continuing to perform and record as part of The Whites.
The Whites charted on country radio throughout the 1980s and were inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 1984. The band enjoyed another surge in popularity, along with some other bluegrass old-timers, with the release of the 2000 Coen Brothers film O Brother, Where Art Thou? (in which they had a cameo) and as part of the accompanying musical event at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, which was released as the documentary film and album Down From the Mountain.
Buck was beloved not only as a singer and musician, but also for his perpetual cheerful smile and fun-loving spirit.
