The Whites

bluegrass · americana · folk

The Whites are an American family band playing bluegrass, country and gospel, formed in 1972 and known in their early years as Buck White and the Down Home Folks. They came out of Fort Worth, Texas and relocated to Nashville, where they have been based ever since. The group centres on the sisters Sharon White, born in 1953, on guitar and Cheryl White, born in 1955, on bass, with their father Buck White on mandolin and piano. Buck, born in 1930, had played dances, wrestling arenas and auditoriums around Texas while working as a plumber by day, and he performed with the group until his death in January 2025. Sharon White married the bluegrass and country musician Ricky Skaggs in 1981, and the two families have recorded and toured together frequently since. The Whites reached the country top ten in the early 1980s with You Put the Blue in Me, Hangin' Around and Give Me Back That Old Familiar Feeling, and became members of the Grand Ole Opry in 1984. Their reading of Keep on the Sunny Side, recorded for the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, carried them to a far wider audience; that album won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 2002. A second Grammy followed in 2008, when Salt of the Earth, a gospel record made with Ricky Skaggs, won Best Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel Album. The band received the International Bluegrass Music Association's Distinguished Achievement Award in 2006 and was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008. The sisters resumed performing in August 2025, and the Opry remains their most regular stage.

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