Josh White Jr. started early on his path to music.
His father, famed folk singer, actor and civil rights activist Josh White Sr., was already a prominent musician, a trailblazer in country blues and folk, when he started inviting Junior, at 3 years old, to perform on stage with him.
White accompanied his dad to shows on a regular basis. He features a rendition of “One Meatball,” recorded live with his father in 1944, on his 1999 album, “In Tribute to Josh White, House of the Rising Son.”
“I sang with him whenever he wanted me to sing with him,” White, 74, said in a phone interview from his Michigan home. “Sometimes he wanted his son on stage, sometimes he didn’t.”
Chances are you’ll hear White cover some of his dad’s works when he performs as part of the Javarita Coffeehouse concert series at the Good Shepherd United Church of Christ in Sahuarita, Friday.
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As part of his visit, White will be given a tour of the border through the Good Shepherd’s Samaritan program.
The purpose of the tour is so that musicians can spread awareness about what is going on in the borderlands of Southern Arizona.
Other musicians that have taken part in the series include Tom Chapin, John McEuen, Guy Davis, Tish Hinojosa and Peter Yarrow, many of whom are friends with White.
“So many people came to this country as immigrants,” White said. “We have to perpetuate that and look at what immigrants have given to this country over hundreds of years. Whatever I can do to help, I am willing.”
White Jr. said he has never had to fight to step out out from his father’s shadow, despite his dad’s success as a performer.
White Sr. came up from recording race records in the 1920s and ’30s to selling more than a million copies of his album, “One Meatball” in 1944.
He is often praised as the first black artist to tour solo across the United States and internationally.
White didn’t realize just how famous his father was until he was a little older.
“We were doing shows with people like Red Buttons, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald,” White said. “They were greeting my old man like they were friends. It started to sink in that he knew some people.”
Through his father’s encouragement, White Jr. set out on his own in 1961, carving out a career that has lasted more than five decades.
White Jr. has performed for presidents and popes. He has recorded more than 25 albums and has participated in events ranging from the memorial concert for his longtime friend, folk singer Odetta, to a concert marking the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.
White said many of the songs he will sing on Friday will revolve around the concept of freedom.
“I always keep a variety of songs handy, because that is what my old man gave,” he said.
