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***The self-titled third LP by Tony Joe White-- newly remastered for Sepia-Tone-- was originally released by Warner Bros. in 1971, a collection of soul-flavored, blues-drenched swamp rock with a few reflective, soul-tinged ballads about life and love thrown in. Recorded in Memphis, this is classic Tony Joe White: an influential mixture of rugged country and powerful rock songs garnished with gritty vocals, fuzzed-out wah-wah, and the brilliant sounds of the Memphis Horns. White has long occupied a revered place in the pantheon of completely laid-back Southern white-guy recordmakers (along with J.J. Cale, Don Williams, and Dan Penn). His style has been described by Jackson Griffith of Pulse as the "ideal soundtrack to watching the world fall apart from your front porch." Born in 1943, White was the youngest of seven children in a part-Cherokee family raised on a cotton farm near Oak Grove, Louisiana, and first showed an interest in music at the age of 16 when he heard an album by Lightning Hopkins. He later began performing at school dances and night clubs, first as Tony and the Mojos and then as Tony and the Twilights. "The Swamp Fox," as he came to be known, found himself in the national spotlight in the late '60s with his classic "Polk Salad Annie," a Top 10 hit later covered by Elvis Presley; other of White's songs were also covered by Elvis, by Dusty Springfield ("Willie and Laura Mae Jones"), by Hank Williams Jr., Brook Benton, and over a hundred other artists ("Rainy Night in Georgia"). Throughout the '70s, White toured with some of the biggest artists of the decade including Credence Clearwater Revival, Eric Clapton, and Joe Cocker, and scored another hit in the '80s when Tina Turner recorded "Steamy Windows." |
