The CD that comes with the magazine Sing Out had a song on it that I couldn't get out of my head. A beautiful, simple love song that's just about how love is in the little things. That song (I know what love is) was so nice that I went to look for more, and that produced a couple of  very surprising CD's. White doesn't just sing beautiful, tender songs,  he's also a kind of mellow standup comic, so you find several "stories" among the songs.

Let me just admit, I haven't laughed like this much in ages as with the 2 CD's whose covers you see here. I'm talking about really laughing. The freeing, full laugh straight from the belly. Wonderful. And what is it about? About troublesome adolescents, for example, and about a man and his dog. The latter is a song in which he gets the entire audience to howl at the moon like a dog. "If I had asked you to do this ten years ago the people outside would have called the cops, but now they just think ' oh, a moonhowling workshop'". 

It sounds as if it is about nothing, and it's about almost nothing, but that is exactly what makes it so fun. White has eye for detail - listen to the story about his teenage daughter and you'll recognize universal teenager behavior - and he works that into songs and stories that are always cozy and close to home. Listen to White and you realize again that you can really laugh about anything. It just depends how you look at things. 

In addition, White can enjoy the little things, and make clear to us what makes them so special. Read this fragment from his latest show, and you'll understand, I hope, what I mean.
 

I sat in the chair with the phone in my hand and stared at the wall. Paul had hung up. I was dazed. It was too much to process right away. I could hear laughter rising up from the living room. My son and daughter were down there with their mom. She has a great laugh, my wife. It's these short, high pitch, staccato half-yelps. It always sounds beautiful to me but there is a particularly magnificent texture to it when she is laughing with her children. It's a much warmer, fuller sound. It says, "This is the happiest I can ever be" to me. When I hear it, I get younger.  If I could hear my wife laugh with her children every day, I'd never grow old.  The telephone in my hand suddenly began to yak. It was that dreadful "I'm off the hook and I demand to be hung up immediately," sound. It dragged me out of my reverent analysis of the sounds of laughter. I obediently did as my telephone commanded and then I went to bed.

By the way, this man also publishes his records on his own. [list of cd's].  All the cd's can be ordered at cd freedom. Also check out Don's website.

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