It’s not a bit easy to sum up Don White’s long and impressive career as a singer, songwriter and musician in a phrase or two. But “not necessarily Nashville” and “music with a groove” fit the bill as well as any others.
Those also happen to be the names of the two radio shows he’s done for stations in the Tulsa area. The former refers to the program he did with the former owner of Vinita’s KITO, Dave Boyd, before Boyd sold the station and it changed from a country-music to sports-talk format. The latter is the subtitle for his weekly Don White Show on radio station KRSC (91.3 FM), still rolling along after nearly a quarter of a century.
“I started doing radio because I wanted to play my friends’ records,” White says. “I still do, except that most of the people who were making records then are gone now.”
At the time he began Not Necessarily Nashville, White had logged plenty of time as a Music City artist, cutting records as a solo act for ABC-Paramount; playing on sessions; fronting his own shows; and selling songs to the likes of Rosanne Cash, the Oak Ridge Boys and Suzy Bogguss. Later on, after returning to northeastern Oklahoma, he’d record several well-received CD’s and guest-star on others, notably as a featured vocalist on Eric Clapton’s 2014 tribute disc to J.J. Cale, The Breeze. (Cale, in fact, had been a member of White’s first band.)
Apparently, however, all the songwriting, recording and performing didn’t quite slake White’s creative appetite. So he decided he’d take a shot at radio as well.
“This was sometime in the ’90s,” he recalls. “I’d always wanted to have a radio show. When I was growing up, a lot of the stars started on radio, and we always listened, and I thought, ‘It’d be cool to have my own show and play what I wanted to.’ I thought about it off and on for several years, and then one day, I said, ‘Wait a minute. Dave Boyd’s a great friend of mine, and he owns a radio station.’
“So I called him up and told him I thought it would be nice to have my own show. He said, ‘Well, I can help you out. You want to do it on Wednesdays? We could start next Wednesday.’”
White laughs as he remembers how flummoxed he got at the instantaneous offer. Quickly, he sought advice from a Tulsa friend, the Grammy-winning drummer David Teegarden, who’d spent time helming his own radio show.
“I remember the advice he gave me – ‘Be sure to wear your headphones all the time,’” says White with another laugh. “He also said, ‘Don’t try to sit around and plan the show. Don’t say, “I want to do this, or can I do this?” Just start it.’
“So I took that advice and it worked out fine.”
With Dave Boyd at the controls, White did Not Necessarily Nashville at KITO for several years – always figuring he might be courting trouble because of the name.
“I kind of stole it,” he admits. “There was a little ol’ public-radio station outside of Memphis that had a show with that title for a short time, and I just loved it so much that I started using it. I figured any day they’d be calling me, but I never heard from ‘em.
“Everybody steals from everybody, you know,” he says, chuckling. “I played a song of mine for [country star] Tompall Glaser one time, and he said, ‘Yeah, that’s one of my favorite melodies.’”
As is the case with Music with a Groove, Not Necessarily Nashville featured recordings by his friends, including both Nashvillians and Tulsans. Because of his stature as a music-biz insider, White had access to material that other stations didn’t, including demos – demonstration recordings – that were never meant to be played over the air. And, of course, he was able to feature some of his own music as well.
“I loved being on the radio with Dave,” says White. “That was fun. He handled everything, and I knew him so well that I knew what to say and not say.”
Occasionally, though, the station owner would exercise veto power.
“There’s a song I wrote called ‘Cozumel,” with a line in it about ‘raising hell in Cozumel,’ and one day Dave said, ‘Don, let’s not play that anymore.’
“I said, ‘Why not, Dave? Everybody, especially the Grand Lake people, love it.’
“He said, ‘I know they do, and it’s a good song. But you say “hell” in it eleven times!’”
It was through another friend, the late KRSC station manager Alan Lambert, that White got his second program, The Don White Show: Music with A Groove, broadcasting and livestreaming from the Rogers State University campus in Claremore. From its inception, his intention was basically the same: to play music he liked, much of it created by his friends. With the KRSC show, however, he was able to expand the playlist beyond country music to include rock, Red Dirt, R&B, blues and other genres.
“When I first started there, Jeanne Cahill was doing a bluegrass show right before mine, and one time she said, ‘Stay tuned for Don White’s show. He plays music with a groove.’ It was just an offhand statement, but I thought it was great, so I started using it.” He laughs. “Like I said, everybody steals from everybody.”
In the beginning, he adds, “I played a lot of Mark Knopfler. I played songs off the album Stevie Ray Vaughan made with his brother Jimmy. I played Texas guys and people I knew, mostly. Then, when I got acquainted with some of the Red Dirt guys – Tom Skinner was a close friend of mine – I’d play them. Brian Horton at [Tulsa-based] Horton Records gave me his records, and I’d play a lot of those guys. And looking through my archives, I’d find old demos and stuff and put ‘em on CDs. I even played songs I’d recorded at home by myself, that I’d never had on records.”
As the show’s gone on, White has done his best to retain a balance between the new, the old and the in-between. And, like his longtime friend Billy Parker, he’ll give just about anyone at least one spin.
“I try not to play too many of the old ones, or too many of the new ones,” he explains. “And even if I don’t think the record is that good, I’ll find something on it that I can play.”
Longtime listeners to Music with a Groove probably know that the program’s been in reruns for some time now. That’s because of an issue that cropped up in White’s life a couple of years ago.
“I had a tumor in my throat and had to do some radiation and chemo,” says White. “It’s now in remission. But I had to lay off for several months. So they’re still playing my old shows.”
While his health scare caused him to consider pulling the plug on the broadcasts, he’s decided to continue. One of the reasons, he notes, is that KRSC general manager Tip Crowley will let him do it from home, so that he doesn’t have to take a weekly trip from Grand Lake to the Claremore studio.
“I got to thinking about it, and you know, this station goes [streaming] all over the world,” he says. “I’ve got listeners in France and in the Bahamas.”
And whether they’re in the Tulsa area or halfway around the world, Don White has the same message for them all. In fact, it’s the way he closes every one of his shows.
“I always say, ‘Don’t forget to be good to each other, don’t forget to be good to yourselves, and remember, music is medicine.’”
The Don White Show: Music with a Groove, airs at 7 p.m. Sundays and repeats at 2 a.m. Mondays, over KRSC 91.3 FM.
