It all started for Amelia White with a Martin guitar. The now Nashville, Tennessee-based musician was reared on instruments typical of your grade school band, but once a guitar fell into her lap, that was it, becoming the instrument she was destined to play for the rest of her life, a life which now involves living in East Nashville, making records and touring.
White will perform Friday night in Durango with Carter Sampson at The Lightbox at Stillwater Music.
“I played oboe, trumpet, piano and I found guitar through my brother. He came home from the Navy with a Martin guitar, I got my hands on that and there was no turning back. It was like, ‘this instrument is fine,’” she said. “I just took that guitar over, and eventually he was like ‘OK, sister, you got to buy this from me.’ He only charged me $50.”
If you go
WHAT: Folk and roots with Carter Sampson and Amelia White.
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday.
WHERE: The Lightbox at Stillwater Music, 1316 Main Ave.
TICKETS: $20.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.stillwatermusic.org.
It was that same brother who set her on a musical path, whose record collection served as eventual inspiration.
“My brother was a big music person, and I think that’s where I would sneak down and listen to his records, even though he was like, ‘don’t touch my stuff,’” she said. “It was Muddy Waters, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles. The Beatles just blew my mind – and it’s hard to beat The Beatles; they have every genre within what they do.”
Post-college, White learned she could be a professional songwriter. Higher education took her to the Northeast, and it was around Boston where she started busking on the streets and in the subway. That’s an area where musicians on the street are a dime a dozen, however, White stuck with it, developing her craft as a songwriter, which gave her plenty of material as a performer. It’s something she not only wants to do, its something she must do.
“Seeing those $20s fall into the hat, I was like, ‘Hey, this is pretty cool,’” she said. “But, I’m really a songwriter first. I just write, it pours out of me. I throw a lot of them away, and from that point I started realizing that if I’m going to write them, I need to sing and play and get better and better at that. You know, I feel like it took me a while to tour solo, I was like, ‘Oh, I can’t do that.’ Now I’m comfortable doing that. It’s just been a real journey. It’s a calling. Sometimes I think of it as a disorder.”
Her 2024 release, “Love I Swore,” is an 11-song release of electro-folk and gentle pop. It’s a laid-back affair with a slacker vibe to it. Cuts like “Something New Comes” are gentle and quiet, while “Beautiful Dream” is just that, a dreamy cut that’s killer-catchy. Then there’s the bouncy travel tune, “Get To the Show” – it’s a slow groover.
Her partner for this tour is Carter Sampson. Sampson, who has been making Durango a regular tour stop, is an Oklahoma-based folkie whose pop-folk comes with a hint of twang.
Finding a business partner you are cool with spending time on the road with isn’t always the easiest thing, but for White, she’s found a kindred spirit to bounce around the country with, eating road food and having a laugh.
“I actually love touring alonne, but sometimes you find somebody, and we just have fun,” she said. “Carter and I view life in a humorous way, we both do. She’s really easy going and I’m pretty easy going, too. I don’t know, we laugh a lot. The last tour we were on we ate so much crap that I had to go on a healthy food diet when I got back. We had fun.”
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
