At only 25 years old, Canadian singer Bella White has already made a name for herself as one of the most captivating young presences in modern bluegrass. White will be stopping in Charlottesville Friday on her tour supporting North Carolina string band Mipso.
Embedded in the tradition of Appalachian roots music but unafraid to experiment with her sound, White has released two full length albums marked with their honest lyrics and moving vocals, and had a single featured in “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.”
White’s ability to pierce straight into the heart of Appalachia despite her Canadian upbringing can be explained by the role of her father, a native Virginian, in White’s musical journey. White’s father played the guitar, banjo and fiddle in a bluegrass band throughout White’s childhood, and introduced his daughter to southern bluegrass at a young age.
“I love Virginia. Every time I'm in Virginia, I feel really peaceful and really happy, and I love the mountains,” White said. “It's beautiful, and I'm really honored to have that be a place that is part of my identity.”
White’s debut record, “Just Like Leaving,” leaned heavily into the bluegrass sound, sincere and straightforward with stripped down production. Her latest album, “Among Other Things,” blends modernity with tradition, preserving White’s innate capability for realism and emotion in her songwriting while allowing her the musical space to put her own twist on the genre. She described her first album as feeling more like private reflections pulled straight from her diary, whereas her second project carries the tone of a conversation.
For inspiration, White looks to the work of bluegrass and folk legends, including Joni Mitchell, John Prine and Emmylou Harris, but her music is entirely her own – a combination of folk, Americana and traditional country, mixed with her soulful voice and acoustic guitar artistry.
“I think that it's important to pay homage to the greats, but I also think it's important to be realistic and write about things that are happening, and try to not just pigeonhole yourself into one genre,” White said.
For her setlist Friday night, White plans to play songs from every era, taking care to incorporate a little bit of everything. She said that she is looking forward to touring with her friends in Mipso, and is excited to play intimate shows like the one at the Jefferson Theater downtown.
“I love the feeling of picking up on other people's energy when I'm playing and having a moment of connection with them,” White said. “It's also really special to be in the studio and have a really intimate experience of performing and singing. I kind of connect to the songs in different ways when there are different kinds of outward energies happening.”
White reflected on her experience recording “Among Other Things,” where she had the chance to work with a wide variety of incredible musicians, including producer Jonathan Wilson, who has produced for Father John Misty, Billy Strings and Conor Oberst and guitarist Buck Meek, member of indie-folk band Big Thief.
"It's, most of the time, a really positive experience. I think that if you kind of connect with [the] person, then it's this fun way to kind of share an intimate experience because you're putting the trust of what you created in their hands,” White said.
In addition to differences in production, White’s songwriting process on “Among Other Things” took a slightly different route than her work on “Just Like Leaving,” which was written when she was a teenager. She mentioned that she felt she had her whole life to work on “Just Like Leaving”, giving the record a unique coming-of-age quality, whereas she felt more time pressure writing “Among Other Things.”
“Among Other Things” is a record of growth. White’s new songs combine the more traditional bluegrass elements of “Just Like Leaving” with the depth of her own lived experiences, maintaining the relatability and simplicity that gives her music its charm.
“I've just tried to be authentic with what's going on in my life, and sharing my stories as they are, [while] making space for the things that really shaped me, and still winking and nodding at those,” White said.
Staying true to her stories not only defined White’s career, but opened the door to an unexpected opportunity to have her music featured in “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.”
The producers heard the authenticity and familiarity of the Appalachia-based District 12 in White’s music and asked her to write a song for the soundtrack. She had a back burner beauty waiting to be rescued and reproduced from the “Among Other Things” studio session that didn’t feel right at the time. White had the idea to do a stripped-down rerecording, and her single “Burn Me Once” appeared as the ninth track on the film’s soundtrack alongside artists like Olivia Rodrigo and Sierra Ferrell.
“That was a fun serendipitous thing, because I wanted to put that song out but I wanted it to be a little bit different than how we had done it,” White said. “It felt like this kind of special opportunity to put that out in a different way.”
Following her first two albums and various singles, White plans to tour before releasing her third, which is already in the works. You can listen to her on all streaming platforms or catch her stunning vocals live, in Charlottesville or at another stop on this tour.
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