programbook
With a voice like sandpaper and songs that tell about the South, Tony Joe White has carved his name on the pantheon of contemporary singer/songwriters.
"Polk Salad Annie" and "Willie and Laura Mae Jones" bring to life Tony Joe's Louisiana just as William Faulkner's characters took his readers to Mississippi.
Producer Jerry Wexler sees a unity in the output of many white Southern artists, from Tony Joe White to the Allman Brothers, and calls it "Swamp Music". Though Tony Joe's hometown of Oak Grove near the border of Arkansas and Mississippi is a long way from the delta swamp-land of Louisiana, he shares the influences of country music, rock and roll and the blues with white musicians like himself throughout the southwestern United States.
"Swamp music comes from everything you learn about life", Tony Joe explained. "It's a feeling more than anything else, a way to let it right out".
Sept 1973
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