Terry White’s career as a musician can be traced back to his childhood in Oak Park, IL, just outside of Chicago, where he began teaching himself guitar as an adolescent (and played in the requisite talent show/school dance/house party band after graduating high school), but really took root in Carbondale, IL, where he attended Southern Illinois University and formed a band with Phil Bayer, Kevin James and Chris Obren after graduation. That band, Modern Day Saints, recorded a slew of original music and, in 1989, moved to Los Angeles to sell it all to the highest bidder. The band lost Obren to fatherhood but gained new drummer Rob Pierce and enjoyed a rabid LA following as regulars on the legendary Sunset Strip. After a long residency at the Whisky-a-Go-Go, Modern Day Saints broke up in 1992.
In 1994, White moved back to Chicago and reconnected with James and Pierce to form the roots rock group, the Yellowhammers. In 1996, they released their debut LP, Suffer Fools Gladly, and released several follow-ups all on their own label.
Terry released his solo debut, Our Separate Ways, in 2007 and then formed the band Cannonball in 2009. Cannonball was an opportunity to collaborate with other musicians based around long-running venue FitzGerald’s Nightclub in Berwyn, IL, and White’s 2012 album Cannonball Fodder, produced by Jon Langford (Mekons, Waco Bros, Skull Orchard), celebrates that spirit of collaboration and being part of a musical community.
2020’s Still Got Me, credited to Terry White and his backing band The Loaded Dice, continued to shine a light on White’s fine songwriting and musicianship and set the stage for his fourth full-length solo album You Won’t Have a Home, set for release on Friday, Sept, 26, 2025.
You Won’t Have a Home is a collection of songs written over the last four years. It began in 2021 when White, Paul Bivans (drums), Andon Davis (guitar), Michael Krayniak (bass) and Chris Neville (organ) met at Joyride Studios, owned by engineer Blaise Barton (who sadly passed away on June 12, 2025), in Chicago.
The songs that comprise You Won’t Have a Home were recorded one at a time, with as few overdubs as possible, to maintain a “live in-studio” sound. Over the course of many sessions, White enlisted his musician friends, including Brian Leach (who also engineered and mixed tracks on the album), Gerald Dowd, Patrick Brennan, Rob Pierce, John Pirruccello, and Phil Bayer, to lend their voices and assorted instruments to flesh out the desired sounds and textures. He further enlisted Pie Eyed Pete Cimbalo (bass), Sheila Cimbalo (vocals) and Tom Kneesel (pedal steel) to record a version of “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Lost Gatos),” written by Woody Guthrie and Martin Hoffman.
At 65 years of age, Terry White has plenty of experiences to draw on as a writer. The songs that appear on You Won’t Have a Home reflect not only the mistakes he’s made over the years, but also the good fortune that he has enjoyed. The album opens with “Laughing Leads to Crying,” which combines the mistakes, good fortune, and some pure fiction all in one!
Other tracks on the album, a couple of which were recorded and mixed by John Abbey at Kingsize Sound Labs in Chicago, recollect the friendships of youth, the trials of marriage, and the pursuit of happiness.
David Kindler, a well-known photographer and friend, designed the stark and haunting artwork (based on one of his original photos) that graces You Won’t Have a Home‘s front and back covers. The album was mastered by Collin Jordan at The Boiler Room in Chicago, IL.
Terry hopes that anyone who listens to You Won’t Have a Home (or hears its songs live in concert) will enjoy the fruits of his labor and that of his many collaborators.