[3] White also worked extensively as a session musician, appearing on recordings by the Everly Brothers, Joe Cocker,[4] Ricky Nelson, Pat Boone, the Monkees, Randy Newman,[5] Gene Clark,[3] Linda Ronstadt,[6] Arlo Guthrie,[7] and Jackson Browne among others.

[6][9] Clarence's father, Eric LeBlanc Sr., played guitar, banjo, fiddle, and harmonica, ensuring that his offspring grew up surrounded by music.

[2] Although they initially started out playing contemporary country music, the group soon switched to a purely bluegrass repertoire, as a result of Roland's burgeoning interest in the genre.

[6] In 1957, banjoist Billy Ray Latham and Dobro player LeRoy Mack were added to the line-up,[5] with the band renaming themselves the Country Boys soon after.

[6] After attending a performance by Doc Watson at the Ash Grove folk club in Los Angeles, where he also met the guitarist, Clarence began to explore the possibilities of the acoustic guitar's role in bluegrass music.

[9][14] In 1964, the Colonels recruited fiddle player Bobby Sloan and continued to make live appearances at various clubs, concert halls and festivals.

[15] Music critic Thom Owens has remarked that White's playing on the album, "helped pioneer a new style in bluegrass; namely, he redefined the acoustic guitar as a solo instrument.

[18] White even anticipated the viability of a folk/rock hybrid when, in the summer of 1964, he was approached by Jim Dickson to record a version of the then-unreleased Bob Dylan song "Mr. Tambourine Man" with electric instruments.

[5] However, despite White's enthusiasm for the project, he was unable to convince his bandmates in the Kentucky Colonels of the experiment's validity[5] and ultimately, the song was instead recorded by Dickson's proteges, the Byrds.

[5] Abandoning bluegrass temporarily, he switched from his Martin D-28 acoustic guitar to an electric Fender Telecaster, with the intention of becoming a studio musician like his hero James Burton.

[3][18] 1966 also saw White begin playing with a country group called Trio, which featured drummer Bart Haney and former Kentucky Colonel, Roger Bush, on bass.

[21] During the Clark album sessions, White reconnected with mandolin player and bassist Chris Hillman, who he had known during the early 1960s as a member of the bluegrass combo the Hillmen.

[22] The country-oriented nature of the songs was something of a stylistic departure for the group and can be seen as an early indicator of the experimentation with country music that would color the Byrds' subsequent work.

[23] White also contributed guitar to the band's follow-up album, The Notorious Byrd Brothers,[24] and to their seminal 1968 country rock release, Sweetheart of the Rodeo.

[4] In July 1967, White signed with Gary Paxton's Bakersfield International record label and released a pair of solo singles: "Tango for a Sad Mood" b/w "Tuff and Stringy" and "Grandma Funderbunks Music Box" b/w "Riff Raff".

[3] During 1967, while they were both members of Nashville West, White and Parsons invented a device that enabled Clarence to simulate the sound of a pedal steel guitar on his 1954 Fender Telecaster.

[29] The need for such a device was driven by White's desire to bend his guitar's B-string up a full tone, while keeping his left hand on the strings and fretboard.

[33] White was brought into the group at bass player Chris Hillman's suggestion, as someone who could handle the band's older rock material and their newer country-flavored repertoire.

[35] Before long, he had persuaded McGuinn and Hillman to replace Kelley with his friend from the recently dissolved Nashville West, Gene Parsons (no relation to Gram).

Journalist Steve Leggett has noted that, although the original line-up of the Byrds gets the most attention and praise, the latter-day version—featuring McGuinn and White's dual lead guitar work—was regarded by critics and audiences as much more accomplished in concert than any previous configuration of the band had been.

[38] Similarly, authors Scott Schinder and Andy Schwartz have commented that although the White-era Byrds failed to achieve the commercial success of the original line-up, the group were a formidable live act and a consistently in-demand attraction on the touring circuit.

[40] The album included a re-recording of the Gene Parsons and White-penned instrumental "Nashville West",[40] as well as a rendition of the traditional song "Old Blue", which was the first Byrds' recording to utilize the StringBender.

[48][49] The 1971 Byrdmaniax album saw White singing lead vocals on "My Destiny", written by Helen Carter,[50] and "Jamaica Say You Will", penned by the then little-known songwriter Jackson Browne.

[60] Other albums that White contributed his guitar playing to while he was a member of the Byrds include Linda Ronstadt's Hand Sown ... Home Grown (1969), Rita Coolidge's Rita Coolidge (1971), Marc Benno's Minnows (1971), Jackson Browne's Jackson Browne (1972), Gene Clark's Roadmaster (1973), and a trio of Arlo Guthrie albums: Running Down the Road (1969), Washington County (1970) and Hobo's Lullaby (1972).

In mid-February 1973, just prior to the break up of the White-era version of the Byrds, White joined with guitarist Peter Rowan, mandolinist David Grisman, fiddler Richard Greene, and banjoist Bill Keith to form the bluegrass supergroup Muleskinner.

[34] In addition to his work with Muleskinner, White also undertook a number of sessions between late 1972 and early 1973 for his friend Gene Parsons' debut solo album Kindling.

[71] Following the end of the package tour, White entered the recording studio with producer Jim Dickson on June 28 and 29, 1973 to begin work on a solo album.

[citation needed] Clarence White helped popularize the acoustic guitar as a lead instrument in bluegrass music, building on the work of guitarists such as Doc Watson.

Many of the most influential flatpickers of the 20th century cite White as a primary influence, including Dan Crary, Norman Blake, and Tony Rice.

Arlen Roth, heavily influenced by this style, did not at the time know that White and Parsons had invented a B-bender, so instead developed his own unique all-finger bending version of this technique.