Name: Ringmaster by Angela Norris White
Duration: 4 min 42 s
Description: Rough Demo Tracks recorded in the control room at the studio

Rough Demo Tracks recorded in the control room at the studio

Ringmaster

Marrying the traditional idiom of classic country with finely-drawn and revealing lyrics that tell of a hard life richly and fully lived--that is the music of Angela Norris White.  White's writing is rooted in real life experiences that extend back to her hardscrabble start.  From her poverty stricken life with no running water,  heat,  and Christmas in name only to homelessness to addiction to abuse, White says "When you grow up singing as a way to literally help yourself survive, it gives you a very personal and unique relationship to singing and songwriting.  For me, because I have that kind of connection, songwriting lets me draw from deep within while keying me into a space of authenticity and sincerity that I probably wouldn't be able to touch otherwise."  She credits her singer/songwriter mother, always balancing a big old Gibson on her knee, for her love and passion for music and songwriting that started at a very early age.  "It's how we survived, well, that and a sense of humor.” says White.   Her years of "woodshedding" included studying the songs of those she now credits as her musical mentors, among them Lucinda Williams, Townes Van Zandt, John Prine, Hayes Carll, Rodney Crowell, and elder statesman Guy Clark.  These mentors acted as a magnet that drew her into her Americana style music.  She fell in love all over again, but never lost her love of traditional country music and outlaw country music.  Her songs are delivered in a spot-on, keening country inflection that recalls a time era past, while being ever so present on stage, and she is finding a welcoming, and appreciative audience wherever she appears.  White has coined her own term for the genre of her original material as "Edge". White says, "Well because it’s on the "edge" of everything, anything, something, and sometimes nothing". In White's work, that "edge" combines with honesty, a clear-eyed, yet abidingly romantic outlook on life and studied song craft to create distinctive and memorable songs.  Now that Gibson is balanced on Whites knee, and country music is the richer for it..