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Brought up in a musical family, it was probably inevitable that Florida born Lari White would make music her career. From an early age she was not only singing with the Family band but also writing and playing piano and guitar. After studying music at university, Lari won a talent contest and moved to Nashville where she soon established herself as a writer and performer.
As well as her own recordings, Lari's voice can be heard singing harmony or background vocals on many artists tracks, such as Dolly Parton, Trisha Yearwood, Faith Hill and Rodney Crowell.
Despite juggling her time between being a singer, writer, producer, wife and mother and more recently acting in films, Lari still found time to talk with Country Music File.

CMF:- A beautiful dark hair girl smiling and dancing round an empty warehouse, singing "That's My Baby" was many UK country fans introduction, particularly mine, to Lari White. Did you have as much fun making it as you appeared to have in the video and was it taped in Nashville?
LARI:- I had a blast! I've been acting in plays and musicals since I was a little girl, and I studied acting here in Nashville and acted in a lot of theater here while I was trying to get my first record deal. So making videos is fun for me - a chance to exercise that acting muscle. I make my film debut this Christmas in a movie called "CASTAWAY", with Tom Hanks, so now I've got the acting bug worse than ever.

CMF:- The track was of course from your second album "Wishes" but let's go to your debut "Lead Me Not". You weren't a stranger to the recording studio having released a single "Flying Above The Rain" and singing vocals for Jimmy Dorsey, Rodney Crowell, Robin Gibb, Julio Inglesias (in Spanish!) and Michelle Wright but how did you feel recording your own album at last?
LARI:- Like I was finally doing what I had been born to do. I got so much out of my experiences singing with other artists in the studio, but nothing compares to making your own record. Working with Rodney Crowell as a producer was what made it such a great time, though. Rodney gave so much of himself, during a very hard time in his life, and he also gave me more freedom and responsibility than any other producer of his stature would have done. He really encouraged me to learn and explore the production process.

CMF:- You had some chart entries from the album but it was "Wishes" which really brought you success. The album was quite different to your debut and probably showed more of your musical roots with a bluesy/jazz flavour on some of the tracks. Was the decision to be more commercial on "Wishes" your idea or the record company's?
LARI:- Definitely a joint decision. I wanted a hit song on the radio. I knew I could write and record a song that radio would play and I really set my mind to that. But country radio here isn't really open to a lot of "soul" influences, so I had to reign in a lot of my natural instincts. I'm finally working on an album now that I'm not trying to reign in AT ALL.

CMF:- Before discussing the album further let's just go back to how you became involved in music. Your family was very musical and even at an early age you were performing with them. What sort of music were you performing and what memories do you have of those early years?
LARI:- We were called "The White Family Singers" - pretty evocative, huh? My mom and dad are such creative people. They sang together because they both loved music and performing, although they were both full-time public school teachers. I forced my way into the act at four years old and then my brother and sister joined in as soon as they came along. We sang anything that had good harmony - the Bee Gees, Bread, Peter Paul & Mary. We brought the house down with John Denver's "Grandma's Feather Bed" and then, of course, lots of great old southern gospel songs. When we were all getting along it was a magical, incredibly special experience. Of course, like any family, we had our share of internal conflict, and then it was really tough to perform together. That's where I first learned "the show must go on...".

CMF:- As a teenager, you played in various bands and went on to study vocals and music engineering at the University of Miami. What actually did that involve?
LARI:- UM. has the best music engineering school in the country - and since they gave me a full academic scholarship, I was all over it. I was, and still am in some ways, out to defy the "chick singer" label, so I wanted to learn everything I possibly could about making music. Getting the engineering degree taught me how to run all the studio equipment, design acoustically sound recording rooms - so I'm completely comfortable in the studio doing just about anything technically that I want done.

CMF:- After graduation, you travelled around the country and in 1988 and won TNN's 'You Can Be A Star' which really opened the door for you didn't it?
LARI:- It was a great "welcome to Nashville" and probably shaved at least a year or two off my dues-paying period trying to get a record deal. Mostly because the cash prize enabled me to do nothing but write songs the whole first year I was in town. No waiting tables, no selling shoes - all the stuff that takes you away from your real love - Making music.

CMF:- You did several jobs - sang jingles, delivered phone books and worked in a cabaret comedy group until the big break came through meeting Rodney Crowell. How did that come about?
LARI:- I really have to thank ASCAP for including me in the showcase that started the phone ringing. I had finally written the group of songs that I felt were really album-ready, and Pat Rolf at ASCAP signed me up to play at Douglas Corner. As soon as I got off stage I started getting offers for record deals. It was a rush. Larry Willoughby, who also worked at ASCAP, called about a week later and said he wanted to introduce me to Rodney. You should have seen me hopping around the apartment on the phone with him, trying to keep my voice from giving away the fact that I was flipping out! Rodney's "Diamonds and Dirt" was a very influential record for me and working with him was perfect.

CMF:- So that brings us back to your albums! On both the debut and sophomore albums you were involved in the writing of most of the tracks. Did you find it easier to write material for the second album with it being more commercial?
LARI:- I perform well under pressure! and the pressure was pretty intense from the label, from radio, but mostly from myself, to write songs that would be radio hits. I just took my personal experiences and wrote about them. "That's My Baby" was about Chuck, and the fact that my parents were NOT crazy about him at first. But as far as the musical setting, we definitely worked to make it sound like a hit. I don't know if that's easier or harder - just a different art form from sitting down to write an esoteric, inside kind of song.

CMF:- One of the co-writers on both albums was Chuck Cannon, who became your husband about 6 weeks before "Wishes" was released. Did you meet Chuck through writing together? And what this about the lavish dates at a bookstore (laugh)?
LARI:- We both played a weekly writer's night pretty regularly, and really learned a lot about each other through our songs before we ever dated. But we tried really hard for the first month of seeing each other NOT to write together. You know, keeping the "biz" out of the personal and all that... In vain, as it turned out, because we'd be having dinner conversation and lyrics would be flying across the spaghetti - it was so natural and easy and good to write together, we couldn't fight it. We were both so broke we couldn't pay attention, so on Friday nights Chuck would pick me up and we'd go to this great bookstore that had a little coffee shop in it and they had a songwriter's night on Friday nights. We'd buy a cup of coffee and wander around the store reading all kinds of books, sometimes aloud to each other, then we'd listen to some of the writer's perform and talk about songs. Very romantic and a cheap date!

CMF:- Several hits came from "Wishes" - "That's My Baby" - "Now I Know" and "That's How You Know (When You're in Love)". "Don't Fence Me In" was your last album before you left RCA but it wasn't long before you were back in the charts with Travis Tritt and "Helping Me Get Over You". You also co-wrote the song with Travis - over the telephone!? How difficult was that?
LARI:- By telephone and fax, actually. Travis already had the first verse and almost all the chorus. He just wanted the second verse to be from the woman's perspective, and I wrote that on an American Airlines napkin on my way home from the American Music Awards.

CMF:- Bouncing back you signed with Lyric Street and released the album "Stepping Stone" from which there have been several releases including the excellent "John Wayne Walking Away". Which is your personal favourite from the album and why?
LARI:- Not fair - that's like asking a mother which of her children is her favorite. "John Wayne" is way up there, but "Tired" has a special place in my heart. That song is so perfectly written, it's an emotion that everyone has felt and the recording really stepped outside the traditional Nashville country record.

CMF:- You obviously enjoy writing as well as performing but how difficult is it to combine a career in music with raising your two children and has being a mother given you a different approach/aspect to your writing?
LARI:- It's that immutable time and energy equation. Writing takes an incredible amount of creative energy and a lot of time by yourself to think. There was a period of about three years where every ounce of that time and energy I was pouring into my babies and I wouldn't trade a second of it for the biggest hit song in history. Now they're old enough that I can claim a little of that energy back - and I have to say it feels great. I wouldn't do it differently, but I did miss myself a little. I'm a better artist for it, though. I've entered a new phase in my work - kind of scary, but good - and a lot of it has to do with facing mortality through my children and realizing life is too short to waste time spinning your wheels in the same old comfortable rut you're used to. At least find a new rut to get into!

CMF:-It's obviously along way off but if either M'Kenzy or Jaxon wanted to follow in either yours or Chuck's footsteps would you encourage them and what single piece of advice would you give them?
LARI:- I would stand behind them and encourage them every step of the way, just like my parents have done, but I would also pass on the advice my parents always gave me. Success is hollow if you aren't first and foremost becoming the best human being you know how to be. Sometimes you might have to make the choice between the easy success and the tough principle. If you sacrifice the principle, the success means nothing.

CMF:- Looking back over your career what's the biggest lesson you have learnt and the most memorable highlight so far?
LARI:- The biggest lesson would be that you can't anticipate where art will take you - either as an artist or, as the one experiencing the art. The highlight of my career has always been and always will be those nights on stage when the audience and I are completely connected, experiencing something that takes all of us to another, timeless place, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that this is what I was made to do.

CMF:- So what plans have you for the future and can we expect more albums from you? LARI:- You're actually catching me at a very exciting and critical time. I've been storing up ideas and inspiration for three years now and I'm making an album that I have always dreamed of making, but never had the guts. It's called "Green-eyed Soul". I'm producing it myself and recording it here at my home studio, The Holler. It's a pretty radical departure from the music I've made in the past and I hope my fans will like it. I'll probably make a sneak peek available thru my website - lariwhite.com which is being developed right now. It's the first time I've done my own site, and I'm really psyched about it - especially for my international fans. I'm looking forward to a very strong Internet presence with a lot of interactivity.
I've also started, along with my husband, an indie record label, called Nashville Underground that's signing hit songwriters who are also kick-butt performers. You can check it out at nashville-underground.com.
Then this film with Tom Hanks is another whole story I'd love to talk to you about sometime. It was a pretty exciting gig, and it's motivating me to get back into acting again, too. I've studied acting and done a lot of theater as an actress, but never film before. It's a completely different animal, but fascinating work.

CMF:- It's been a pleasure talking with you Lari. Good Luck with the film "Castaway", and we look forward to your new album.