Roland White
Roland White (born Roland Joseph LeBlanc; April 23, 1938 – April 1, 2022) was a mandolinist, guitarist, singer, and teacher from Madawaska, Maine. He grew up in a French-speaking family of French-Canadian descent. He formed a band with his brothers Eric and Clarence and his sister Joanne, and after the family moved to southern California, the brothers were hired by a television station as the Country Boys. After two years in the Army, he rejoined the band, by then renamed the Kentucky Colonels. He played guitar with Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys from 1967 to 1969 and appeared on nine of Monroe's recordings. He then played mandolin with Lester Flatt's Nashville Grass from 1969 to 1973. In 1973 he, Clarence, and Eric reunited as the New Kentucky Colonels. A few months later, after a show, a car struck Roland and Clarence while they were loading equipment, and Clarence was killed. Roland then spent 13 years with the progressive bluegrass band Country Gazette. He was a member of the Nashville Bluegrass Band from 1987 to 2000, a period when the band won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album twice, for Waitin' for the Hard Times to Go and Unleashed. After 2000 he led the Roland White Band with his wife, guitarist Diane Bouska. He was inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2017. He died in Nashville in 2022, at age 83.