Big Sky by Ronnie White

Originally released in 1975, Ronnie White’s Big Sky is a lost private press gem of the famed Tulsa Sound.

White grew up playing music all around Oklahoma eventually catching the eye of Leon Russell’s Shelter Records, who invited him to their Church Studio in Tulsa to cut demos. They recorded several of White’s songs, with musicians such as White’s long-time partner Randy Cochran, plus Jamie Oldaker (Eric Clapton’s Band), Walt Richmond, Ricky Durbin and David Teegarden. The group also recorded in Leon’s home basement studio while Leon was on the road. The Church Studio would close shortly after due to a legal dispute between Leon Russell and his business partner, Denny Cordell, but White was able to secure some of the tapes before the doors were locked for good.

White was disappointed due to his Shelter recordings being stuck in legal limbo, but was soon approached by a private backer to fund new recordings. White took the deal and recorded the album Big Sky. On a minimal budget, White worked on the album in a small 8 track studio called, Smallwood. The recordings were done in only a few days with Ronnie playing most of the instruments on the recordings and enlisting old friends Scott Nutter (bass and backing vocals), Steve Hickerson (steel guitar) and Walt Richmond (Moog synthesizer) to fill in the band. The album was engineered and mixed by the studio’s owner Davis Smallwood to White’s dissatisfaction in the end.

Jaded by the whole experience White decided to focus on his live performance and teamed up with longtime collaborator Randy Cochran on bass and backup vocals, as well as Bingo Sloan on guitar and Robbie Armstrong on drums. They called themselves Ronnie White and Big Sky and soon found themselves in Southern California playing at the famous Troubadour club. “The best band we could ever have”, remembered White. It was in the Troubadour one night that Ronnie and Randy were approached by an A&R person from RCA Records, who offered them a deal to cut a single of a Del Shannon song. After a disagreement with the A&R, the deal fell apart and White was again left with a feeling of deep disappointment.

By this time White was feeling very disillusioned by the music industry and, in his words, “I started drinking a lot and wouldn’t stop. Still, I put together a band and had some successes, but it was never the same and my drinking was getting in the way, so one night after a gig where the owner stiffed us on the money, I said enough. I didn’t play music again for nearly two years.”

An avid enthusiast of space exploration, White decided to change gears and pursue degrees in mathematics and computer science. He followed another dream when he took a job as a computer engineer for NASA’s Space Shuttle Launch Support team at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. His devotion to science fiction and space exploration is evident early on in his song, “The Jump”, a brooding outsider country tune featuring White on piano and Moog synthesizer. In the song he portrays a love gone wrong in Space and even evokes Asimov’s “The Stars Like Dust”. White left NASA in 2000 and moved to Switzerland for a time. He rekindled his passions for creating music and also pursued a writing career while teaching himself classical piano. He continues to write and record his own music.

Day End Record is proud to present the first ever reissue of “Big Sky” with an expanded track list that includes the unreleased recordings from White’s 1973-75 Shelter Records sessions and home demos.