Do you like Clapton, The Dire Straights, a laid-back voice, and a magical guitar? Then listen to the new album of Tony Joe White, and you will bless us!.
Elvis, Ray Charles, Joe Cocker, Wilson Pickett, Etta James, Jason & The Scorchers, more recently Tina Turner, and so many others: all have spiced, at one moment or another, their albums with songs composed by Tony Joe White. Better than anyone else could, just like a painter would, Tony Joe has written his self-portrait some ten years ago when he wrote "Swamp Rap": Now I don't move too fast/ and my talk is kinda slow/ I'm from the swamps/ And I like to slow (?) to Cotton Eyed Joe" Add to this a kindness that is only highlighted by his delightful southern accent. I'm meeting this icon of the laid-back, this bluesman, white by accident, creator of the swamp-rock in the heart of Tennessee (Franklin), as he has brought out a new swampy album, recalling our best memories after an eight year period without new work. To explain this immediately, know that the man admits without any scruples that he prefers the golf-fields, fishing and horses to the atmosphere of a studio and that he nourishes this paradox viciously. How else could this Louisiana-man, drenched by the blues of Lightnin' Hopkins and John Lee Hooker (up to the point that, early in his career, even black people when they listened to "Polk Salad Annie" or "Rainy Days In Georgia" thought he was one of them) strike down in Nashville, a white town above all, the antipode of his musical taste?
I've lived in Memphis for fourteen years. As nothing happened there anymore as the studios closed down, I decided to move on. I wanted to live in a musically active town. And since I refused to move to New York or L.A., I came to Nashville or at least just around the corner in Franklin. It's obvious that I have nothing to do with Nashville and that's reciprocal. Here, playing rock, playing blues means that you are connected to the black. In other words for them I am black. On the other hand I adore Franklin.
It's true; Franklin is not Music City. Even if this is the country, the area has class. One can bump into Stevie Winwood, record at Dennis Byron (ex- Bee Gees), or simply meet Mark Knopfler, introducing his friend Brendan Croker to fishing under the watchful eye of Tony Joe. The same night some hundreds of fortunate fans are the first to hear Tony Joe's new album at the Bluebird, a club found along the exit to Nashville on the road leading to Chattanooga.
It took me seven years to make this album. I've played all these songs in tiny bluesclubs. And it's only because people started to move on this music that I decided to record these tracks. Actually, I've given the best of myself for all of those who have supported me these past years. And I believe that I've done a good job.
On the scene, Tony Joe hardly moves. But completely in the style of his blues-godfathers he weaves the sounds of his voice and his guitar with a damp and almost demonical sensuality. Up to a point where I suddenly realise that the encounter with the other girl from Mississippi, Tina Turner was inevitable, arranged by the gods.
She heard "Under Cover Agent For The Blues" and wanted to record it. I went to LA to discuss this with her and I would meet her in the studio where she was working on a publicity for Chrysler. The moment we are introduced to each other she starts to laugh uncontrollably. After a while she says to me:" I'm sorry, but I've always thought that you were black". We connected immediately, and we met again in a studio in New York. There she asked me first to play some guitar, then to become a producer and finally she said: "You know, I would like to record "Steamy Windows" and "Foreign Affair". Oh man! That was a dream come true for me. There was so much solidarity between us that it seemed as if we had been friends forever. In any case, even in the studio she is as exuberant as she is on stage.
And it was during these sessions that you met Mark Knopfler?
Yes, I've learned a great deal from him, especially on "Brothers in Arms". And I believe he has also learned some things from me: "Sultans Of Swing" is very swampy! (laughter). We both have that bluesy side in common. Mark is one of my favourite guitar-players along with Eric Clapton. It's by the way due to people like them, like Santana, Bonnie Raitt, all these big names in the rock who play on the albums of John Lee Hooker that the blues still exists today. Without them it would only be a small deal! It's such a pity that the black are not aware of this, at least not the youngsters who are only familiar with rap...
Overtaken by a sudden appetite he leads me to his favourite restaurant. In this familiar atmosphere, between a catfish and an ice-tea, Tony is at ease, glad to share his taste of paradise. I evaluate the misunderstandings that must have arisen when this composed man met Elvis during the times when the last successfully made "Polk Salad Annie" known to the large public.
He was very friendly with me, but he lived in a different world. One day I invited him to go fishing. He answered:" Eh… yes, maybe one of these days…" The next day, he comes across one of our friends and he tells him with an astonished voice: "Do you realise that Tony wants to go fishing with me? Don't you think that is a very strange thing to do?" In his world fishing was unthinkable, it was too cool. For him, the ultimate excursion was to take a plane to Dallas, eat a cheeseburger there and fly back immediately to Memphis!
As accurately as the French painter Le Douanier Rousseau (1844-1910) worked, Tony Joe describes the bayous. There is no one who comes near him as far as the description of everyday stories is concerned, the way they've happened since decades on the riversides of the Mississippi or in shabby motels along the highway 61. On top of this he has the wisdom of the people that live in the Delta, used to the caprices of the river, the wisdom that enables to come closer to the truth day after day. "Closer To The Truth" is exactly the title of his new album. And, as a matter of fact, he recently came to our country, to try his talents as songwriter-producer-guitarplayer- mouthorganplayer on the new album of Johnny (Halliday, Leo).
A few month ago he called me by telephone: "Tony come with your men from Muscle Shoals to Paris. I want to make something that sounds like it does there." At the start we would do three pieces. It worked well, so we ended doing five pieces. The other songs are by Bon Jovi. Very amusing to hear your songs in French! All things considered, I should have kept them for an album (laughs)!
Since I refused to move to New York or L.A., I came here. Here, in Nashville, playing rock, playing blues means that you are connected to the black. In other words for them I am black. But I adore Nashville.
Rock and Folk
Januari 1992
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