Biography

Joy Lynn White was born in Arkansas, but raised in Mishawaka, IN. At the seasoned age of five, White began singing with the White Family Band, led by her father, Gene White. After high school, she headed to Nashville, where she worked as a demo singer before landing a recording contract with Columbia, who issued her debut as Joy White in 1992. Between Midnight & Hindsight showcased White's fiery vocal delivery and flair for cutting, freewheeling honky tonk. However, the album's three singles found only moderate success, and the album quickly faded. Undeterred, White added a middle name and returned in 1994 with the barreling Wild Love. But despite White's undeniable vocal style and the presence of a crack studio band, the album wasn't a success. Columbia dropped her, and she took some time off to refocus. White re-emerged in 1997 with a new label (Polygram) and a new album, Lucky Few. Recorded with Dwight Yoakam's West Coast production team, the album featured songwriting contributions from such notables as Lucinda Williams and Jim Lauderdale, and toned down White's powerful delivery, tempering it with arrangements that fell somewhere between mature Nashville pop-country and the more grassroots approach of outsider country acts like Nanci Griffith. The album met with critical acclaim, but still didn't break White into the mainstream. After Lucky Few, White continued to collaborate as a singer with artists like Yoakam and the Mavericks, and worked as a staff writer for Nashville's Welk Music. She contributed songs to Lucinda Williams' 2001 album, Essence, and found success in Europe's thriving country & western scene. In 2000, the Lucky Dog imprint reissued Between Midnight & Hindsight in a remastered version as part of its "Pick of the Litter" series. Two years later, White self-released On Her Own, a collection of solo demo recordings, through her website. ~ Johnny Loftus, Rovi