Keith Whitley

Biography
“Jackie Keith Whitley” (b. July 1, 1954 in Sandy Hook, Kentucky d. May 9, 1989) was
an American country music singer.

Early life

Whitley learned to play a guitar at a very young age, and became involved with a
regional television show when he was eight years old. He and his friend, Ricky Skaggs,
formed a bluegrass band, which landed both of them their first break in 1970, when they
joined Ralph Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Boys. Whitley was singing lead for the band by
1974 at the age of 20.

In 1978, he joined J. D. Crowe and the New South as lead vocalist and guitarist. Critics
were by then praising his vocals, and these reviews eventually caught the attention of
RCA Records, who would sign him to a contract in 1984.

Solo years

Whitley’s first solo album, ‘’A Hard Act to Follow,’’ was released in 1984. However, the
songs off of the album didn’t get much airplay. Critics regarded the album as too erratic;
while Whitley was working hard to achieve his own style, the songs he produced were
inconsistent, and because of this, the follow up album would be more with pop sounds
and a new producer as well who had been in the music buisness for sometime and had
several hit records under his belt with other artists Blake Mevis.

L.A. to Miami, released in 1986. This album would give him his first Top 20 country hit
single, “Miami, My Amy.” The song was followed by three more hit songs, “Ten Feet
Away,” “Homecoming ‘63,” and “Hard Livin.” The album also had included “On The
Other Hand” and “Nobody In His Right Mind Would’ve Left Her.” Both George Strait
and Randy Travis waited to see if Whitley would release these two songs as singles;
when he didn’t, Strait grabbed “Nobody in his Right Mind Would’ve Left Her”, and
Travis did the same with “On the Other Hand.” Both Strait and Travis scored big on both
songs, landing both at number one on the country charts.

During his tour to promote ‘’L.A. to Miami’‘, he met and started dating Lorrie Morgan, a
fellow country singer. The pair were married in November, 1986, and they had their only
son, Jesse Keith Whitley, in 1987. Keith also adopted Lorrie’s daughter Morgan from her
first marriage.

During the new recording sessions in 1987, Whitley started feeling that the songs he was
doing were not up to the way he wanted them,nal studio album, ‘’I Wonder Do You
Think of Me’‘. The album was released three months after his death, on August 1, 1989.
The album produced two more #1 hits, with the title track and “It Ain’t Nothin’.” “I’m
Over You” also saw the top ten in the spring of 1990, reaching No. 3.

In 1990, a collection of Keith’s greatest hits was released. It has gone on to sell more than
three million copies over the years for RCA.

On the greatest hits collection was a demo record that Whitley made in 1987, called “Tell
Lorrie I Love Her,” and also a new song to which Lorrie Morgan added her vocals to and
created a duet called “Til A Tear Becomes A Rose”. The song rose to No. 13 and won
them 1991’s CMA award for Best Vocal Collaboration.

RCA also released a compilation of old performance clips (from his days in the Clinch
Mountain Boys and the New South), interviews, and some previously unreleased material
under the title “Kentucky Bluebird”, a moniker that became Whitley’s nickname. The CD
has become a huge collector’s item among fans over the years due to it being out of
print.and is currently in production.

Almost twenty years after Keith’s passing fans and fellow singers still wonder what
would have happened if Keith had lived, some say Garth Brooks would have taken a back
seat to Keith in the 1990’s , Tim McGraw and many singers today still are influenced by
the man who just wanted to be remembered.

In 2007, long time fan Kindall Wann will be launching an all Keith Whitley radio station
on the internet site Live365.com, the station will contain every known public release of
Keith’s and also the live concerts, demos, and more that fans have has among them for
years.

In the summer of 2007, Austin City Limits will be releasing like in past years, several
DVDs of their concerts over the years, and Keith’s “FULL” concert is one that will be
released. The concert filmed is an hour long, but the television version is only 30 minutes
long.

Keith’s music video’s and many rare performances have recently been showing up on the
website YouTube.com, one of the performances is from Hee Haw in 1985, Keith singing
“Miami, My Amy”.
Edited by StarShine07 on 3 Feb 2007, 09:01