POLK SALAD ANNIE
Tony Joe White has a sleepy southern Louisiana accent, looks and sounds a lot like American heavy actor Claude
Akins, and plays a fast guitar. There are seventy million sorts of soul, but they don't all turn to gold when
touched - this one, however, did. The second Tony picked op a geetar, a new brand of soul was born and families
throughout the hills of the United States gathered round the man who could start a hoe-down with his little
finger.
"I've been doin' this for some years now. Way back in the early days, my brother found a Lightin' Hopkins LP
somewhere and bought it home to me. I played and played the thing and started lookin' around for as much music
as I could dig up. I had me drummer and I used to do a lot of Elvis Presley numbers and the like until I had my
own thing together. I found that before you could build up a following, you had to exist by playing familiar
numbers and stick a few of your own in here and there. Gradually, people started coming to hear the songs
I wrote."
"One day I packed up my guitar and went off to Nashville to play my songs. There I met the people from Monument
and they dug it. I started makin' records. I don't know how I'd describe my music. What I guess it's more a soul
sound than anything alse. I certainly hope so because I sure hate country and western stuff."
Tony's latest release on Monument is a deep drawl with a beat called "Polk Salad Annie".
"Polk", explains Tony, "is a kind of mustard green that can be prepared in a lot of different ways. I've eaten an
awful lot of that in my time. 'Annie' is just a tag you put on somebody if they get to be known for a certain
thing about their habits or character. So 'Polk Salad Annie' was famous for her pretty steady diet of it."
A steady diet of 'Annie' feels pretty good on the ear too. Tony's unique soul flavour is not at all reminiscent
of the Wilson Picketts and James Browns that the word suggests, although he stresses his deep appreciation of
soul singers of today. This is a new kind of personal soul that will demand attention.
What's in line for you when you get back to the States, I asked?
"A lot of fishin', I hope," he drawled.
Lon Goddard, 1969.
