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WORK TITLE: Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://ryanwwhite.com/
CITY: Portland
STATE: OR
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https://ryanwwhite.com/about/ * http://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Ryan-White/557289078
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married.
EDUCATION:University of Michigan, B.A., 1997.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Gard Communications, copywriter, 2017-present. Ryan White & Associates, writer, 2013-present. Metro Parent, “Daddy Issues” column writer. Worked formerly as a journalist for the Oregonian, 1997-2013.
AWARDS:The Society for Features Journalism, named one of the top feature writers in the country.
WRITINGS
Has contributed to numerous periodicals, including Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, Sacramento Bee, Dallas Morning News, and Portland Monthly.
SIDELIGHTS
Ryan White is an Oregon-based writer. White attended college at the University of Michigan, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1997. He then began writing for The Oregonian, where he worked for sixteen years, covering sports, music, and culture. In 2013 White began Ryan White & Associates, a freelance writing service. He provides copywriting services for Gard Communications.
White has been named one of the top feature writers in the country twice by the Society for Features Journalism. In addition to writing for the Oregonian, he has written articles for Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated,Sacramento Bee, Dallas Morning News, and Portland Monthly. White lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and daughter.
White’s second novel, Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way, details the life and works of musician and businessman Jimmy Buffett. A contributor to Publishers Weekly wrote: “White aptly captures an ingenious musician who’s expertly figured out how to spin his music and himself into something that his fans will continually follow.”
The biography begins in Mobile, Alabama, where Buffet was born. White writes that Buffet did not quite fit in in Mobile and struggled in his early musical attempts in Nashville. Buffet eventually found a fanbase in Key West, where he began to develop his characteristic musical style. In interviews, Buffet’s friends express how the legend was a bit of an oddity in these musical scenes, but his attitude and demeanor were consistently positive and magnetic.
White writes that this positivity and magnetism is exactly what has helped Buffet to have developed such a dedicated group of fans, known as ‘Parrotheads.’ Buffet’s musical style and personality represent a laid-back, lighthearted lifestyle that draws people in. He has an interest both in music and in seafaring adventure. His songs represent both of these worlds. Fans are drawn to the personality, the songs, and the freedom and beach paradise lifestyle that Buffet’s music represents.
The book explains that, while representing a relaxed lifestyle, Buffet is also a savvy businessman. In addition to creating a successful musical career, Buffet has turned his brand into a large corporate success. He has opened a number of successful chain restaurants and resorts and he sells merchandise.
White draws on interviews with Buffet’s friends and family members, as well as quotes from Buffet. In addition to writing about Buffet’s life, White takes the reader into the history of each of Buffet’s albums. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews described the book as a “feel-good biography for Parrotheads; others may want to pass.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2017, review of Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way.
Publishers Weekly February 27, 2017, review of Jimmy Buffet, p. 87.*
Ryan White
Ryan White, the author of Springsteen: Album by Album and Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way, has twice been named one of the top feature writers in the country by the Society for Features Journalism. He spent sixteen years at The Oregonian covering sports, music, and culture. He’s written for The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, The Sacramento Bee, The Dallas Morning News, and Portland Monthly. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
About
bookphotoTwice named one of the top writers in the country by the Society for Features Journalism, Ryan White spent nearly 16 years at the Oregonian covering sports, music, and culture. He has appeared on the public radio variety show Live Wire! as both an interviewer and an essayist. He has written for Sports Illustrated, the Wall Street Journal, the Dallas Morning News, the Washington Post, the Sacramento Bee, the Portland Mercury, and Portland Monthly magazine. He also authors the every-other-month Daddy Issues column in Metro Parent magazine.
Author of Springsteen: Album by Album, available internationally. Is currently at work on a proposal that’s leaving him bruised, but not beaten.
Representation: Zachary Schisgal, The Schisgal Agency.
A perfectly Ok beer league hockey player, he lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and daughter.
He is available for parties, and assorted word-related assignments.
Ryan White
3rd degree connection3rd
Writer
Gard Communications University of Michigan
Portland, Oregon 399 399 connections
Connect Connect with Ryan White
Twice named one of the top writers in the country by the Society for Features Journalism. Author of
'Springsteen: Album by Album,' and 'Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way." Literary representation by Zachary Schisgal, the Schisgal Agency, New York. Writing copy for the good folks at Gard Communications now, too.
See more See more of Ryan’s summary
Experience
Gard Communications
Copywriter
Company NameGard Communications
Dates EmployedFeb 2017 – Present Employment Duration10 mos
LocationPortland, Oregon Area
Ryan White & Associates
Writer
Company NameRyan White & Associates
Dates EmployedJun 2013 – Present Employment Duration4 yrs 6 mos
LocationPortland, Oregon Area
My freelance writing house. Available for all your word needs. Trading good sentences for money since 1997. Moving forward, in any direction.
Media (5)This position has 5 media
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Daddy Issues: Rink of Dreams | Metro Parent Magazine-PDX Kids Calendar
Daddy Issues: Rink of Dreams | Metro
Parent Magazine-PDX Kids Calendar
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The Energy and Anxiety of Oregon Football
The Energy and Anxiety of Oregon
Football
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The Ballad of Pete Krebs: One Legendary Musician Unites Decades of Portland Music
The Ballad of Pete Krebs: One
Legendary Musician Unites Decades of Portland Music
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Springsteen: Album by Album
Springsteen: Album
by Album
This media is a document
The Guy I Never Was | Live Wire! Radio
The Guy I Never Was |
Live Wire! Radio
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The Oregonian
Journalist
Company NameThe Oregonian
Dates EmployedOct 1997 – Aug 2013 Employment Duration15 yrs 11 mos
For more than 15 years I brought readers a little closer to their passions.
As a sports writer, I covered football, basketball, hockey, baseball, golf, wrestling, track and/or field, bankruptcies, crime, and administrative shenanigans. Wrote a column, too. As a music writer, I've covered bands and their records, festivals and their lineups, concerts, the business of music, and spent a lot of time in basements, coffee shops, and bars.
Education
University of Michigan
University of Michigan
Degree NameBachelor in General Studies
Dates attended or expected graduation 1993 – 1997
White, Ryan: JIMMY BUFFETT
Kirkus Reviews.
(Mar. 15, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
White, Ryan JIMMY BUFFETT Touchstone/Simon & Schuster (Adult Nonfiction) $26.00 5, 9 ISBN: 978-1-5011-
3255-1
The Mayor of Margaritaville gets mythic treatment in an adoring chronicle that looks back at his decadeslong career.For
many, Jimmy Buffett (b. 1946) endures simply as an icon of midlife escapism, forever grinning behind aviator-style
sunglasses, beachwear, and his guitar. Former Oregonian sports and culture reporter White (Springsteen: Album by
Album, 2014) further cultivates that legend, locating the beginning of Buffett's unlikely rise to the predilections of a
ship-hopping father who once yearned for a life of seafaring adventure. With that tone set, the author explores Buffett's
spawning grounds in and around Mississippi and Alabama with equal awe and wonder. When Buffett was born, notes
the author, the town of Mobile was known as the "Mother of Mystics." Making it as a musician in places like Nashville,
New Orleans, and Key West was a mystical feat in and of itself. However affable, Buffett was something of a curious
oddity in a town enamored with the sort of darkness embodied in the likes of Kris Kristofferson. But as Buffett's pals
explain, he always had the right mojo. As musician and talent scout Don Light remembers, " 'the people liked him.' Not
just the songs, they liked the singer....' If it was him and guitar, he could talk all evening.' " Fans also liked the freedom
that the singer represented. Consequently, he was able to turn his laid-back lyrics and lifestyle into a powerful corporate
brand responsible for a slew of chain restaurants, resorts, and assorted merchandise. In White's account, how Buffett
actually managed to become a multimillion-dollar mogul is far less important than the legend and lore behind the man.
The author's subject, however, is conspicuously absent from the career-spanning chronicle. Many of the direct quotes
attributed to the artist are actually taken from various concert stages over the years, and they don't illuminate much
outside of demonstrating Buffett to be a likable guy. A feel-good biography for Parrotheads; others may want to pass.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"White, Ryan: JIMMY BUFFETT." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA485105211&it=r&asid=e21dbd9829a614dd9206517d8db49500.
Accessed 15 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A485105211
10/15/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1508109336405 2/2
Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way
Publishers Weekly.
264.9 (Feb. 27, 2017): p87.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way
Ryan White. Touchstone, $26 (360p)
ISBN 978-1-5011-3255-1
In his memoir, A Pirate Looks at Fifty (1998), musician Jimmy Buffett reflected on his life; in this biography of Buffett,
White has written an entertaining life of the entertainer but hasn't revealed many new anecdotes. White's starry-eyed
fan's notes perpetuate the legend of the laid-back, shrimp-eating, beer-guzzling, flip-flop-wearing daydreamer who was
nevertheless a canny businessman. Drawing on interviews with Buffett's friends and fellow musicians, White faithfully
chronicles Buffett's rise to fame and fortune from his childhood in Mobile, Ala., and his short-lived college days in
Hattiesburg, Miss., to his unsuccessful forays into Nashville's music scene and his eventual landing in Key West, where
he roamed the bars with writers Thomas McGuane and Jim Harrison. Working chronologically, White (Springsteen:
Album by Album) carefully takes readers behind the scenes of every Buffett album, revealing an artist who was always
in control, despite his slapdash public persona. White aptly captures an ingenious musician who's expertly figured out
how to spin his music and himself into something that his fans will continually follow. (May)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way." Publishers Weekly, 27 Feb. 2017, p. 87. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA485671216&it=r&asid=53cb3f99c1d4ac69178da61dd583980c.
Accessed 15 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A485671216