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Bryan White (born February 17, 1974) is an American country music artist. Signed to Asylum Records in 1994 at age 20, White released his self-titled debut album that year. Both it and its follow-up, 1996's Between Now and Forever, were certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and 1997's The Right Place was certified gold. His fourth album, 1999's How Lucky I Am, failed to produce any major singles, and he was dropped from the label's roster.
White has charted seventeen singles on the Billboard country charts, of which four reached Number One: "Someone Else's Star" in 1995, "Rebecca Lynn" and "So Much for Pretending" in 1996, and "Sittin' on Go" in 1997. "So Much for Pretending" was the most successful of these songs, spending two weeks at Number One.
White was born in Lawton, Oklahoma, in 1974, and raised in Oklahoma City. Raised by a musical family, White began playing the drums at age five through the instruction of his father. He also played in his mother's rock band and his father's country band as a teenager, and was encouraged to take up singing after his mother heard him sing during a sound check.
During his late teens, White also sold t-shirts for the band Pearl River, in which his friend Derek George played guitar. The band regularly let White onstage to perform a song during their concerts. He also befriended songwriter Billy Joe Walker Jr. and producer Kyle Lehning, the latter of whom helped him sign a contract with Asylum Records in 1994.
White released his debut single "Eugene You Genius" in late 1994. Although it failed to reach Top 40 on the Hot Country Songs charts, his debut album was released. The next single, "Look at Me Now", peaked at number 24, followed by the consecutive number 1 hits "Someone Else's Star" (which Davis Daniel had previously recorded) and "Rebecca Lynn". The success of these latter two singles helped Bryan White achieve a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of one million copies. The album included two songs which would later be singles for other artists in 1997: "Nothin' Less Than Love" (recorded by The Buffalo Club) and "Going, Going, Gone" (recorded by Neal McCoy). Also in 1995, Sawyer Brown charted in the Top Five with "I Don't Believe in Goodbye", a song which White co-wrote with Scotty Emerick and Sawyer Brown lead singer Mark Miller. In 1996, White earned the Country Music Association's Horizon Award and the Academy of Country Music's Top Male Vocalist award.
A review in the St. Petersburg Times said that the label "erred by releasing a novelty song as his first single" but added "the rest of Bryan White's debut album makes it clear that he has talent polish and promise."
Between Now and Forever
White's second album, Between Now and Forever, was released in early 1996. Its lead-off, "I'm Not Supposed to Love You Anymore", reached number 4 on the country charts, followed by the number 1 "So Much for Pretending", the number 15 "That's Another Song", and his fourth and final number one hit, 1997's "Sittin' on Go". Like his debut album, Between Now and Forever was certified platinum. That same year, Diamond Rio charted in the Top 5 with "Imagine That", which White co-wrote with former Pearl River member Derek George and Neil Thrasher, who was then recording on Asylum as one half of the duo Thrasher Shiver.
Country Standard Time reviewer Jeffrey B. Remz thought that the album sounded "pleasant" but that "White's smooth, pretty voice never really sinks into the material"
The Right Place
The Right Place followed in 1997. Its title track, "Love Is the Right Place", was a Top 5 hit, although later singles proved less successful. "One Small Miracle" peaked at 15, and "Bad Day to Let You Go" peaked in at 30 in 1998. The album earned a gold certification. Also in 1998, White made a guest appearance on Shania Twain's Top Ten country and pop hit "From This Moment On" released on Shania's 1997 album Come On Over, there are several edits of the song, both country and pop. The final single from The Right Place, "Tree of Hearts", failed to make Top 40. White followed up the album with a Christmas EP entitled Dreaming of Christmas. He also co-wrote and sang background vocals on Lila McCann's late 1998 single "You're Gone". Also in 1998, he was one of several artists to participate in a charity single entitled "One Heart at a Time".
How Lucky I Am and Greatest Hits
A fourth album for Asylum, How Lucky I Am, followed in 1999. Neither of its singles ("You're Still Beautiful to Me" and "God Gave Me You") reached higher than number 38, and Asylum closed its Nashville division soon afterward. The label's parent company, Warner Music Group, issued a Greatest Hits album in 2000 on the Warner Bros. Records label. This album included the number 56 single "How Long", White's final chart entry. The same year, he sang several of the songs featured in the animated movie Quest for Camelot.
2000s
Being so young and then thrust into stardom so fast ended up taking its toll on White. As White has stated, "My identity was formed by the music industry"; his career and success began defining who he was to himself. With his fourth album being less commercially successful, he started doubting himself and his talent which landed him in a deep depression, forcing him to take some time off until 2005, when he began work on another album. A second Christmas EP, My Christmas Project, followed in 2006.
In 2007, Bryan White sang the song "God of Wonders" on Time Life's Songs 4 Worship Country CD and joined a cast of other popular artists for the collaborative project "Major Rising" to benefit The Melodical Hearts Foundation, the Oklahoma Children's Research Hospital, and many other artist-supported charitable organizations. The song was released on April 5, 2008.
A new album, Dustbowl Dreams, was released on September 28, 2009. White released a new single from that album, "The Little Things", in July 2009.
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