Drake White Interview - Low Country High Road, Writing Songs

Hit singer/songwriter Drake White has resurrected his career after two major blows that could have knocked him out of commission permanently. The Hokes Bluff, Alabama native debuted with his album Spark that climbed to the Top 4 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart. Three of the singles—“It Feels Good,” “Livin’ the Dream” and “Makin’ Me Look Good Again”—reached the Top 40 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart.

However, when Big Machine Records closed the doors of its imprint, Dot Records, White was one of the casualties. Still, the rootsy, Muscle Shoals-sounding singer fought his way back with new music and was working hard on the road, when in 2019 he suffered a hemorrhagic stroke while performing on stage in Virginia.

White had a near-death experience and was told he would never perform again. But he fought back with a passion, and six months later he was singing in front of an audience again. Battling back with enthusiasm, White now returns with his third studio album, Low Country High Road. This 13-track collection captures his ups and downs, but perhaps equally as important is the live sounding recreation Drake and his co-producer were able to nail in the studio.

We are pleased to do this new Q&A interview with Drake White. He tells the stories behind his earlier hits, fighting his way back, and how he has changed as a songwriter.

Bill Conger: Before we dive into your new album, I’d like to ask you about three of your earlier hits. How did your song, “It Feels Good” develop?

Drake White: Growing up in Alabama. I had a Mobile/New Orleans kind of influences in my music, and I always loved that kind of front porch stomping vibe clapping. I love harmonica and whistling. It was one of those things that took about 30 minutes to write…it just felt really good. It’s one of those songs that we still start the show out with. So it’s kind of stuck in there through time.

BC: Then you had the song, “Makin’ Me Look Good Again,” that you co-wrote with Monty Criswell and Shane Minor.

Here’s the video of Drake White’s song, “Life, Love and War.”

White: My wife, her dad and I we were drinking beer one day by the Coosa River that runs through North Alabama, and I guess he had had seven or eight. He was like, “I can’t help but notice my daughter’s a lot better looking than you are.” And I said, “That’s kind of the point—you don’t want to marry somebody uglier than you are.” I said, “I don’t know where she got it. There she goes making you look good”. I just wrote it down, and that became one of the songs that we’re known for.

BC: The second single from your debut studio album, Spark, produced the Top 20 hit, “Livin’ the Dream” that Tom Douglas, Jaren Johnston, and Luke Laird wrote. What appealed to you about this song?

White: If I’m being dead honest, the label that I was with was like, “Man, we need a radio hit.” So, “Livin’ the Dream” came down the pike and I really liked the song, and I liked Tom and Jaren both. I feel like if I’m going to roll the dice on an outside song, those are two pretty good writers to roll the dice with.

BC: On your new album, Low High Country Road, you’ve co-written all the tracks.

White: At this point my life—I’ve been doing it for 15 years—I’ve lived through a near-death experience and we’ve made a lot of records over the past 10, 12 years, so I knew what I wanted to go for it. (Hit songwriter & producer) Jonathan Singleton and I got outside Nashville and just cut life off for the better part of a week and a half. We took a bunch of old songs that we’ve written. We wrote some new ones, and we took a band and made that delta soul country sound. Being from North Alabama, I always knew the gospel, the soul, the bluegrass…all that Appalachian funk was in there. I just had to get it out. I quit worrying about the commerciality of everything and did what I felt was good. I’ve always done that in my music, but this was just really going full bore into it with a phenomenal friend and producer and songwriter in Jonathan.

BC: Were you pleased with the way the album came out?

Here’s the video of Drake White’s song, 10lbs of S#!T.”

White: This is something that I’m excited about. This is a journey. I believe music is in a very cool spot right now, especially for artists out there doing it their own way independently. These are great songs. Some of these songs are 8 and 10 years old. Some of them are a year old. Some of them are six months old. We just picked great songs and we went out there, and so I’m very happy with what Low Country High Road turned out to be.

BC: How are the audiences responding to the new music?

White: We’re already playing ““10 Lbs of S#!T (In a 5 pound bag).” We’re already playing “Last Time, which is one of my favorites. “Last Time” feels great….just that message of faith. Going through my stroke, years ago in 2019, coming through that changed me as a writer. The message you’re getting hit over the head with now is—it’s like the world is ending, be careful, lock your doors. The message of our shows and what I get to see from the 120 cities that I get to visit, there’s more good people than bad and there’s more good things happening than bad. You got to get out there and shake hands with the people. You got to listen to the music. You’ve got to listen to the birds and the bees out there singing and buzzing. Reality looks pretty good. I’m not saying there’s not bad things happening. I’m just saying the music for me changed as a songwriter through all this stuff, and then I became a father this year too. That changed it. It feels really good to get music out there, and especially in this time.

BC: You talked about how fatherhood and the health scare changed you as a songwriter. What were you like beforehand?

White: I think maybe it’s a more seasoned approach to subject matter. That sounded very diplomatic, but I’m serious. My songwriting has matured. I just turned 40. I’m a songwriter, and I’m an entertainer, but I go out and live life. Then I write about the things that I live. I just hold up in my studio, and write songs all day, every day. We go deep sea fishing, we go cook a little country boil, we go to different parts of the world and tour obviously. We get to talk to people. We go to church. We go on vacations and we work hard, and I mow my own grass. You do that and you get out of your 20s as a songwriter and go through your 20s and your 30s. You get to that point where you know who you are, you know what you want, and you know what you want it to sound like. That’s what this record is.

Here’s the video of Drake White’s song, “Faith.”

BC: What was the inspiration for your song, “Life, Love, and War”?

White: “Life, Love, and War” was [about being a father]. After my son was born, I had this title, and I didn’t know where that title was going to go. People asked…did being a father change your songwriting? I replied being a father changed everything. [Actually] being a father didn’t change anything. Being a dad changed everything, trying to figure that out.

I’ve got an outstanding dad, outstanding uncles, and grandparents, and they taught me how to really dig in and get through that stroke and taught me how to believe in God and really understand my faith. But they said to figure it out for my own; don’t just believe it. Figure out the Scriptures for your own. So, “Life, Love, and War” was like, I hope you walk with Jesus through life, love and war, but you’ve gotta find him on your own because “Boats and cars and late night bars turn dollars into dimes.” It’s one of my favorite things because I love boats and cars and late night bars, but you’ll figure out real quick. It turns dollars into dimes. It’s kind of an advice song to my then 2-week-old son. “Hey, man. I hope you find a good lady. Hope you found one like I did because a good wife and a baby that’s as good as good can get.

BC: I love your title cut, “Low Country High Roads.” Are you getting a lot of good response from that song on the road?

White: For me, “Low Country High Road” is about getting in that low country state of mind, which is the front porch, New Orleans state. Everybody’s on the front porch saying, “Come on.” You don’t even have to ask to come to dinner. They want you to come anyway. They’re like bring it on. You’ve been to an LSU tailgate or whatever…they want you to come on in. That front porch mentality is how I view this record. It was like, “Hey, we’re up here. We’ve been making gumbo for 10 years. Get a bowl of it and listen to it. That’s what Low Country High Road is.

And then there’s another meaning to it. Low country—going through the valleys of everything—and then through the industry setbacks, and the health setbacks, and everything, really taking that high road that God’s got you where He wants you. And to really look at people that have maybe said, “Hey, I’m gonna have to move on business-wise, we’re going to keep going. Good luck. They dropped you or decided not to work with or decided not to call you back. To not be jaded about that. That is your path. That is God’s path. You’ve got to believe there’s something good coming from that hard struggle. So, taking the high road through the low country is another meaning in that record.

Here’s the lyric video of Drake White’s hit, “Livin’ The Dream.”

BC: There are several other great songs on this record. What are a couple more that you’d like to talk about?

White: I had an AVM rupture in the back right side of my brain in 2019, one that I knew that I had. We were working on embolizing it, which meant we were gluing it shut. We were four surgeries in, and we were in Roanoke, Virginia and it ruptured, causing a hemorrhagic stroke. I was three minutes from a Trauma Level 1 Unit hospital where they saved my life. I saw angels in the corner of the room, saw bright lights, and thought it was done. They said I’d be lucky to walk again, much less perform. I fought my way back to the stage with the help of my wife and unbelievable fan base. I took that never say die mentality and I kept going and kept moving. “Last Time,” that song for this record, is like “Enjoy the rain, sleet, and snow just like you enjoy the sunshine because you never know if it’s the last time.”

You’ll never know the last you’ll get to interview somebody. You’ll never know the last time you’ll get to eat your grandmother’s fried chicken. The pandemic proved that. Three of my grandparents died during the pandemic, and I didn’t get to speak to them because of the rules set in from the nursing homes. I didn’t know that that was going to be the last time I spoke to my grandmother. We might have talked about some stupid Andy Griffith episode or something and I wish I would have known, but you don’t know. That’s why I’ve said a lot now. 27,393 days is 75 years. So, the lucky man gets 27,393 days on this earth, and it’s up to you what you do with them. You might roll your eyes at that because you’ve heard it before, but when you’ve had a near death experience, you never know when it’s the last time. That’s what that song says. “Last Time” is one of my favorites.

“10lbs of S#!T” in a five pound bag is just as explanatory as you might think. I’m out here mowing grass right now. I see five or six things that I need to go pick up, like that log right there. I’m looking at my yard, and I’m always trying to cram it all in. I love all the songs equally. It was hard to choose 13 songs. I did that purposely too. People said, “Man, you didn’t want to do 14? 13’s unlucky. I’m alive. I’m the luckiest person in the world, no matter what happens. It’s going to take a lot more than a one and a three to make me unlucky.

Bill Conger has been a freelance music journalist for more than 30 years, writing feature segments for shows on the former TNN and Country Music Television. He has written for various publications including Bluegrass Unlimited, Bluegrass Today, Fiddler, American Songwriter, CMT.com, GACTV.com. He can be reached at [email protected].