Robby White is on a roll

Printed in the Sherman Herald Democrat, 12/10/10, plus on its Web site. Click on Living, then Entertainment

Robby White

By Mary Jane Farmer

It’s not by happenstance that good things are happening to Robby White’s career. It’s through a lot of hard work, years of paying his dues, and the loyalty of band members, venue owners, fans, and friends, many of whom are also fans, band members, and venue owners. And through sheer talent.

Robby leads up the Robby White & The Tejas Gringos, a band of four musicians presenting hard-core tonky tonk music, but who collectively and individually have hearts as amazing as their talent. Robby on lead vocals and guitar is joined by Chris Clifford on drums, Brad King on bass, and Mark Lafon on electric guitar.

Mark is the newest Gringo, having replaced Garry Moore, the long-haired barefooted electric guitar who has branched off to play with another up-and-coming band, The Double Os. Mark, Mark David Manders and Jay Johnson fans will remember, played with those two gifted musicians for several years. Robby said he and Mark met up several years ago, “and I found him captivating.” When he needed someone to fill in for Garry at a gig, he called Mark up. Lafon had taken about 18 months off from music and, after sitting in that night with White and the guys, he decided it was time to jump back into it. He’s been with the Tejas Gringos about a month now.

Mark Lafon and Robby White

White said Lafon brings a level of precision to the band unique to his style of music. Lafon was a Texas Music Association nominee for Musician of the Year. “As a musician, his reputation precedes him,” White said. “It all made me nervous at first (talking about when Moore decided to go full time with the Double Os and with Lafon coming in), but then change always scares me. Now, it’s already working great. He’s (Lafon) has this new energy he’s bringing with him to the band.”

It’s been a few months now since White released his second CD, “Backroad Therapy,” packed with seasoned swagger and real, hard, yet human emotions. White wrote eight of the songs, an especially rememberable one called “Evil” with his former drummer Keen Simpson.

Two songs from “Backroad Therapy” have received considerable airplay around Texas and Oklahoma. The first release was “Lone Star State of Mind,” which at one point was, White said he was told, the most-requested alternative country song at Dallas’ radio station KHYI. That opened up venues out of this region. The second release, “I Have A Ball (every time I fall off of the wagon)” is one of the covers on the CD, and it, too, put the Robby White & the Tejas Gringos’ name back in the public’s ear.  Now, the band is releasing it’s third song off the CD for radio airplay, rocker Chris Cornell’s “I Am the Highway.”

White said this song is particular speaks to him. He wasn’t familiar with the song, he said, but when a friend kept saying to him, again and again, “You have to listen to this song,” he did. “I fell in love with the song. When we were in production meetings to make ‘Backroad Therapy’  and I told the producer (Shane McCauley) I wanted to cut it, he thought I was insane. But I got him to come my way, and now it has become one of the most requested songs at our gigs.”

White added that he’s not big on cover songs, and his next CD won’t have any, but in a situation like this one, he was able to put his own style to it, it became his own song. It’s also become to represent his philosophy of success. “It’s about not giving up. ‘I am not your rolling wheels, I am the highway,’” Robby sang spontaneously to those around the table talking with him. “Winners find a way to win, and this song is about digging in your heels and not taking anything laying down.”

Sales of the CDs are happening in Germany, Sweden, and even Japan, White said, “and it seems to be growing and growing. I’ve chalked that up as a result of hard work more than anything. Lord knows I work. I hit the ground running every day, on the phone, or in a writing session, or calling radio stations, and it’s exciting to be seeing the results.”

So, how is life on the road for this man who, no matter what else is happening, still has wife and children as his number one priority. “I just wrote a song about that,” White said. “All my life, I’ve thought about being out on the road, making music, and it was mostly about the fun and such. But now, after five days of stretching out in a motel room, I get painfully homesick. You (a songwriter) take  those moments and turn them into art, and that makes the coming home that much better.”

Robby White

The band is heading back out Wednesday for a four-day trip into Oklahoma, the first day will be stopping at a radio station in Hugo, Robby said, then playing in Duncan and Altus. Sunday is a travel day, back home, so “everybody can be ready  can be as normal as possible that next Monday.”

One new project Robby is excited about stems from his hero-worship of songwriters. He’s hosting a new series called “Tales From The Honky Tonk” Tuesdays at the Last Chance Saloon in Plano. “I know all that goes into writing a song, and fans on the radio don’t always see the whole picture. And so the concept is to pull the curtain back, and have these songwriters come in and talk about what they were feeling and the concepts and stories behind the songs.

Also in the good news column, White recently received an endorsement from Luna Guitars. He’s played a Luna acoustic for years, and played it on “Backroad Therapy.” Band promoter Phillip Lombardo sent Luna some promo to the corporate office in Orlando, and those guys, White said, sent it to the A&R (artist and repertoire) in Las Angeles.  When he got the call from Luna, he said, he didn’t stutter when he accepted the endorsement.

“When I was a little kid and started playing guitar, I would see those pictures of musicians in guitar magazines, and never even though I’d be that guy. Now I am.”

Sunday, White hosts his 4th Toys for Tots fundraiser called “Gringo Christmas,” at Big Slicks in Westminster. “I know, it’s not lost on me, that I am in a unique position now to help others, and it’s my duty to do that,” Robby said, adding it’s a duty he gladly accepts. He picked Toys For Toys, he explained, because, “I know that right here in this area there are kids who are not going to wake up without anything under the tree. In the larger cities, there are a lot of organizations helping, but not so much in these smaller towns.” Although he realizes, he said, that the U.S. Marine Corp Toys For Tots folks can do what they want to with what they are given, he knows they use many of these toys locally.

This year’s line up has grown and now the event will run from 1-8 p.m. It includes not only the Tejas Gringos, but others one DJ tagged the “Texas music mafia,” Jerry Audley, Kevin Clark, Saille Branch, TomMcElvain, Jerrod Medulla, and also Shutdown Town, Chuck Allen Floyd, and Aubrey Lynn. Admission is a new, unwrapped toy or a minimum donation of $5. “More of a donation is perfectly acceptable,” White said. The event has grown each year, having doubled in donations between 2008 and 2009.

For more on Robby White & The Tejas Gringos, go to his Web site, www.robbywhite.com.

Watch the Music Scene Calendar for upcoming gigs.

Category: *- Features