Laura Weber White

Laura Weber White is accustomed to standing a few feet out of the spotlight.

The award winning fiddle player’s remarkable history stretches from the King of Country Music, Roy Acuff's unexpected invitation to play on the Grand Ole Opry to touring with Patty Loveless, Pam Tillis, and June Carter Cash. She rehearsed with June in the Cash family’s living room while Johnny Cash occasionally joined them in his pajamas. She’s accompanied legends such as Ray Price, Loretta Lynn, Mac Wiseman and Kris Kristofferson as well as emerging artists including Brad Paisley and Sara Evans. She has spent decades helping other people tell their stories through music.

Now Laura is becoming more comfortable stepping forward and letting audiences discover the woman whose music they may have been hearing for decades.

Her story began in Oregon with a father who recognized his young daughter’s musical gift and did everything he could to nurture it—including building a two-story deck in exchange for a local violin maker to restore their 18th-century fiddle that would help shape her life.

Laura was 9 years old when she pulled her father’s accordion from beneath a bed while he was at work. She had watched The Sound of Music so many times that its melodies were second nature. By the time her father came home, she had taught herself to play several songs from the movie. “He said, ‘Well, she’s musically talented, now let’s get her on something else besides the accordion,’” Laura smiles.

He chose the fiddle. Fortunately, it chose her, too.

By 12, Laura was competing in fiddle contests. She soon won her division at the Oregon state contest and placed third nationally among 75 young musicians. More importantly, she found a community. “I wasn’t a weird kid anymore,” she says. “I have my own people, and I didn’t even know it. It really was a turning point.”

Contest winnings helped Laura travel to Nashville for the Grand Masters Fiddling Championship, where she met Roy Acuff. He took an interest in the young musician, called her family’s home, and encouraged her to pursue music professionally.

In 1989, while working as a country music disc jockey, Laura obtained passes to a Patty Loveless concert in Portland. After the show, she asked the singer why she wasn’t traveling with a fiddle player in her band. Loveless told her auditions were coming up, took her number, and called her parents to ask whether their 18-year-old daughter could fly to Nashville to audition.

Laura arrived Dec. 28, 1989, with two suitcases, knowing that if she landed the job, there wouldn’t be time to return home. She checked into a $13-a-night room at the Fiddler’s Inn and called Acuff. He invited her to the Opry, then unexpectedly led her onto the stage, borrowed his fiddler’s instrument, and asked her to “play a tune for the folks”.

“I was playing on the Grand Ole Opry my first day in Nashville,” she marveled.

Days later, Laura auditioned for Loveless. It was the first time she had ever sung into a microphone.

She got the job.

Patty had recently signed on to an 80-date tour opening for George Strait. Laura called this “her dream job”. She played fiddle, guitar, mandolin and sang harmony vocals with Patty for her first year in Nashville.

Laura spent the following summer playing fiddle at Opryland and waiting tables. She then accepted an offer to join a bluegrass band in Japan. Laura initially worried that leaving Nashville would make her “out of sight, out of mind,” but she enjoyed the first 4 1/2-month stint so much, she returned for 9 months. “I loved every bit of it,” she says, “ I loved living in Japan.” She saw the experience as an opportunity to learn. Laura wanted to improve her fiddling skills in bluegrass and said it really did make her a stronger musician. “I really learned a lot over there.”

When she returned to Nashville, Laura built a career that stretched from the road to the recording studio. She toured with James House, Pam Tillis, Billy Yates and Gil Grand. She later joined a band opening for Alan Jackson on the High Mileage Road Show tour, introducing new artists including Paisley and Evans. She also toured for several years with June Carter and Johnny Cash.

Her fiddle playing and vocals can be heard on recordings by some of country music’s most celebrated artists, including Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, Sheryl Crow, Billy Joe Shaver, Earl Scruggs, Larry Gatlin, and Emmylou Harris.

Motherhood eventually moved her career further into the background. Although opportunities kept coming, raising her two children had to come first. Now that they are grown, she has begun giving her own music the attention she spent decades giving everyone else’s. About three years ago, she started fronting her own trio and began standing at center stage. “I’ve been comfortable in my role in the background,” Laura says. “It’s taken some practice, getting used to center stage.” Still, she knows the time has come to let audiences see her. Laura is now preparing a new project and album for release in 2027. After a lifetime spent helping other artists tell their stories, she is finally ready to step forward into the spotlight.