SILVER METEOR / Excerpts From Clarence White SEALED

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SILVER METEOR / Progressive Country Anthology..Sierra SRS-8706 ... 1980
The Everly Brothers, Clarence White, Richard Greene, Eric Weissberg,
Bill Keith, Jim Rooney, Levitt & McClure, Casey Kelly

Cover: SEALED
Vinyl: SEALED .. presumed to be MINT

Side One:
1. Never Ending Love (Clarence White)
2. Last Thing On My Mind (Clarence White)
3. Alabama Jubilee (Clarence White)
4. Why You Been Gone So Long (Clarence White)
5. Silver Meteor (Casey Kelly)
6. A Good Love Is Like A Good Song(Casey Kelly)

Side Two:
1. I'm On My Way Home Again (The Everly Bros.)
2. Cuckoo Bird (The Everly Bros.)
3. The Bramble And The Rose (Barabara Keith)
4. Living in The Country (Levitt and McClure)
5. The Knight Upon The Road (Blue Velvet Band)
6. Hitch-Hiker (Blue Velvet Band)

Clarence was very much impressed and touched by the crowd response and the reception given to him and the New Kentucky Colonels. It was a great first-ever bluegrass festival appearance for him -- the audience just LOVED him and their music. Many musicians before and since Clarence White have been searching for that "crossover" sound, a new type of music which will appeal equally to audiences in the bluegrass, folk and country markets. No one has yet found it. Clarence White would have been the first, had he lived."

In June THE KENTUCKY COLONELS (Clarence, Roland and Eric) appeared together with Del McCoury & The Dixie Pals at the "Red Fox Inn" in Washington, D.C.

There were plans of an all star world tour 1973. "Warner Bros. Records" set up a mini-tour which was billed as a "country-rock festival" package. The all-day, all-night affair consisted of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, Gene Parsons, Clarence White, The Kentucky Colonels (Clarence, Roland & Eric White), Country Gazette and also Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Chris Ethridge and maybe a few others - all of whom had signed record contracts with "Warner Bros.". There were two test shows on the East Coast with that bunch of people the first weekend of June, which got fantastic critics. One in Annapolis, Maryland and the other in Philadelphia.

The show opened with a bluegrass set that was followed by Clarence, Gene Parsons, Sneaky Pete Kleinow and Chris Ethridge performing some of Gene's tunes. To close the show, the band stayed on stage to back Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, who were joined by Byron Berline and Alan Munde. That world tour never happened - Clarence White and later Gram Parsons had both tragically died.
For more info on Gram Parsons (and Clarence White) in the book "Gram Parsons: A Music Biography" written by Sid Griffin and published by Sierra Records.

Note: The last public performance given by Gram Parsons was with Clarence White on guitar and Gene Parsons on drums among others at the Tower Theatre, Philadelphia in June 1973. Gram and Clarence had planned to perform and record in the future together with Gene playing drums and singing vocals.

Chris Darrow recalls doing a Clarence White gig at the "Ash Grove", a month or so before Clarence died. Just one night, apparently. Chris was substituting on fiddle (for Gib Guilbeau), he recalls. He remembers there being a bass and drummer. Chris recalls it as a White "solo" thing (albeit, with a band), not a New Kentucky Colonels thing.
Clarence got a recording contract with "Warner Bros." to do three solo albums, in which he had a free hand to express the greatness he had inside him for music, musicians and arrangements. Plans were made for the first release to include both bluegrass and rock material.
When Clarence White started to record his first solo album Byron Berline, Roger Bush, Herb Pedersen, Roland White helped him recording a few songs. Additional musicians were Leland Sklar, Ed Green and Ry Cooder. Produced were those recordings by Jim Dickson. They recorded "Never ending love", "Last thing on my mind", "Alabama jubilee" and "Why you been gone so long". Those songs were recorded June 28-29 1973. The songs were released by Sierra Records on the album "Silver Meteor".
Note: At least three more songs were recorded for Clarence's solo album "Lost highway", "Waterbed" and "Lucky me". "Lost highway" was released on the Sierra release "Flatpick - Special limited 2CD set" 2006, the other two songs are still unreleased!

Never Ending Love / Last Thing On My Mind / Alabama Jubilee / Why You Been Gone So Long

The Everly Bros. (feat. Clarence White & Gene Parsons) - single from 1969:
I'm On My Way Home Again / Cuckoo Bird

Other songs NOT with Clarence:
Casey Kelley: Silver Meteor (feat. Sneaky Pete Kleinow) / A Good Love Is Like A Good Song
Barbara Keith: The Bramble And The Rose
Levitt and McClure: Living In The Country
Blue Velvet Band: The Knight Upon The Road / Hitch-Hiker

Clarence White died on Sunday, July 15 1973 at the age of twenty-nine.

Wayne Moore remembers: "The day Clarence was killed he had been playing at a club called "BJ's" in Palmdale, California. His brother Eric was playing with his country band there and Gib and Clarence happened to stop in and got up to jam. Roland and Eric were with the group Kentucky Colonels but I don't know if that was the group that was playing that night or not. I asked Gib about it but he couldn't remember who the group was either, he didn't know the other guys that were playing."

The funeral was held five days later, with Gram Parsons and Bernie Leadon leading the mourners in singing "Farther Along".

Clarence's death came at the beginning of a new career which promised to encompass his unique perceptions of both contemporary and traditional music forms