At just 23 years old it’s hard to believe someone could have 12+ years of touring experience under their belt, but Corey Kent White does. At age 11, a couple of Western Swing Hall-of-Famers took Corey under their wing, made him the frontman of a young Western Swing band, and put him on stages all across the United States.
After 5+ years of touring with the likes of the Oak Ridge Boys, Roy Clark, & other country music legends, Corey had learned a thing or two about the life of an entertainer. By age 16 he was a solo-artist in the Tulsa music scene, playing every weekend with his blues trio. “Back then, I was playing for tips & free BBQ. At first, we were just background music for the dinner crowd. But after a few months, we were exceeding the fire occupancy in the venues!”
Later that year, a man named Willie Nelson came through Corey’s hometown to perform. Willie invited the young artist up on stage with him to perform "Milk Cow Blues", an old Bob Wills western swing standard. At the last note, the crowd went silent for a moment in disbelief, then erupted into applause. From that moment on, Corey was all-in on carving out a career in music. The Oklahoma-native graduated high school a year early, moved to Nashville at age 17 & spent his so-called ‘senior year’ writing songs.
A year later, Corey moved back to Stillwater, OK where he attended Oklahoma State University & earned a business degree. A demand for his music quickly spread from campus to campus, keeping his band on the road every weekend. “I remember one weekend in particular I had booked us a few shows at Clemson, Georgia Southern, Georgia, and some small college in Kentucky. The 6 of us rented a U-Haul, hooked it up to my Jeep (which only has 5 seats) & made our way across the country. Even though we had 6 full grown men crammed into that Jeep, we had the time of our lives on the road. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as hard as I did on that trip.” Corey would eventually start missing class because of his touring schedule, at which point, he switched to online courses. This allowed him to move back to Nashville & finish his degree while touring the country.
Since then, Corey’s music has spread like wildfire, selling 85,000+ downloads and millions of streams on Spotify. His latest EP, Long Way, broke into the iTunes Top 10 Country Albums & his songwriting landed him a publishing deal with Warner/Chappell. “It’s humbling to be surrounded by the best songwriters & publishers in the world. Everybody at Warner is incredible at what they do & it forces me to continually push myself. I’m honored to have a team that believes in my music the way that they do. The best part is… We’re just getting started!
