Roger White
Canton, 1950s-1990s
Roger White had a long career on the local music scene, about 30+ years that we can document. Over the decades he played 100s of live shows and recorded about a dozen 45s.
He was born in 1935 amd lived in the New Martisnville, WV and Steubenville area until about the time he graduated high school. He moved to Canton and got a job at TImken where he worked for the better part of his life. He seems to have started performing relatively late, compared to most musicians, he doesn't show up as a performer until 1961, He was already married and having children at the time.
His first 45 "Mr. Bluebird" was released on Bryte, and provided him with a minor hit, but also a nickname, Mr Bluebird, and the name for his backing band, the Bluebirds (sometimes spelled as Blue Birds). The record has a classic country sound.
Roger had three more 45s from 1964-1966, two on the Blue Giant lable, with a Massilon address, and one on Akron's Wes Mar label. The furst Blue Giant 45 "Somebodys Stealin My Baby" has a bit of rockabilly influence.
In early 1967 a 45 was issued by the Big A labek with a song "Mystery Of Tallahatchie Bridge" Described as an answer to the mega hit "Ode To Billie Joe", the song was written by Dick Heard and recorded by Roger over a weekend. Roger's work schedule required that he only travel to places where he could be home for work on Monday. The couple newspaper articles found say explicitly that Roger recorded it. Later, it's been claimed that Johnny Paycheck, who was a part owner of the label, was the singer. We've not been able to find anything that does a deep dive on the situation, so we will rest our case with the newspaper clips. In retrospect maybe Roger, or Johnny, regretted the move as the originators of "Ode..." got the record shut down as they claimed copyright infringement.
Roger recorded a 45 for Little Cowboy, another Little Darlin label offshoot, prior to "Mystery.." after which he stopedd recording for a few years.
He returned to recording with a series of 45s for the Royal American label. Most of Roger's earlier records were written by him, but for some of the RA label sides William Bradley from Carrollton was the writer or co-writer.
He had another moderately successful 45 with the 1977 "West Virgini, Carolina Coal Minin' Man" released on Scorpion, another 45 related to Royal American and Little Darlin. He followed this up with another 45 on Little Darlin'.
Roger continued to perform when he could, never giving up on hos dream to be a country hitmaker. He was back into recording as late as 1991 with a 45 on the Texas based Pleasure label.
The last date we could find him performing was in 2000. Although unconfirmed, it seems that Roger passed away then.
A couple mid 1960s shows. The Mustang was better known for booking rock bands in the 1970s.
During
the nearly 40 years documented here, he was backed by the Blue Birds
and also the Keynotes, the names seemed to be interchangable. There is
little info about the members of these bands. Harold "Bud"
Marshall played drums for 25 years, according to his 1999 obituary.
Jane Powell, in her obituary, was mentioned as a member for 27 years,
as a pianist. Other members were John Lerario and Tom White on sax.
Discography
Mr. Bluebird / Childhood Sweetheart - Bryte 240, 1962
Somebodys Stealin My Baby / Let's Forget The Past - Blue Giant 001, 1964
Wake Me / Our Divorce - Blue Giant no # (RCA master 826W-4871), 1965
Thanks For The Heartaches / Table For Two - Wes Mar 1017, 1966
Did You Ever / Let's Forget The Past - Little Cowboy 3003, June 1967
Mystery Of The Tallahatchie Bridge / Wild Roses - Big A 103, Oct 1967
I Can't Give You Me / Let The Whole World Go By - Royal American 70, Feb 1973
Mona Lisa's Back In Town / When Your Welcome Runs Out - Royal American 105, 1974
Over Twice Over / I Gave It All That I Got - Royal American 121, 1974?
West Virginia, Carolina Coal Minin' Man / Ballad Of Hank Williams & Bill Anderson - Scorpion 0535, 1977
Only You / The Only Way - Little Darlin' 7917, 1979
Let Me Down Easy / What Every Woman Wants To Hear - Black Rose 82788, Aug 1988
You And Me Babe / Summer's Comin' - Pleasure 041191, April 1991