Amstelhotel Amsterdam 1991
Tony Joe and the Mojos.
Tony Joe White was born on the 23rd July 1943 in Goodwill near Oak Grove, Louisiana west of the Mississippi. Goodwill is just a Place where two roads cross. There were more stores, a cottin gin, and even a poolhall when Tony was growing ui. Now everything has been torn done, but there are still two stores, a fire department building and tree churches there. Also Goodwill Elementary school, where Tony went to, is still open. Oak Grove is a small, rural farming community. Where his family had a farm where they grew cotton and corn. it was a good life and since then not many things have changed. it is a bit of a swamp land where wild polk salad grows and no alligators. Tony Joe was the youngest of seven children. The whole family played music and Tony Joe was introduced into gospel and country music. They all played guitar and piano. At first Tony Joe was not into music at all. He rather played baseball. But at 16 his oldest brother Charles bought him a Lightin’ Hopkins guitar. That turned him around. His musical influences lies in the blues of Hopkins, John Lee Hooker and Elvis Presley. He played in Tony Joe And The Mojos in his teens. Tony Joe, whose nickname was "Buck", was voted most handsome in his senior class. Later on he moved to Texas and was the leader of a band called Tony And The Twilights. For years they worked the night club circuit. After the band broke up he went to Nashville and Memphis in 1967. in Nashville he met music publisher Bob Beckman. Who was not only impressed by the blues he played but also by his looks. Charismatic and sexy. in december 1966 Tony Joe’s first single recording came out Ten More Miles To Louisiana with Georgia Pines as the B-side. Both songs were rereleased on the Black And White CD in 1996. Later Bob Beckman introduced Tony Joe White to producer Billy Swan at Monument Records. From 1968 to 1970 they recorded three records together. The first singles Ten More Miles To Louisiana, Watching The Train Go By and i Protest stayed unnoticed but the magic was started.
But then Soul Francisco his fourth single broke through in Paris, France in august 1968! Belgium was soon to follow. At that time Englsh was difficult for the people in France. They didn’t know what Tony was talking about in his songs. They just felt something. And now everybody knows what they are all about and in a way they always seem to do. Tony Joe White was at that time bigger in France than in the States. There even was a long live interview with him from a studio in Houston on the French radio.
Tony Joe White was a popular cult figure in Europe at that time.
As a solo artist Tony scored his first international hit with his fifth single Polk Salad Annie which was taken of his first album Black And White. Annie in the song was an alias for a girl he knew. in the States Polk Salad Annie reached into the top 10.
Later on the song was covered by Elvis Presley and Tom Jones. Polk salad is a kind of wild spinach which was cooked and eaten when times were poor. Tony is not ashamed to admit that. Polk salad is not a kind of illegal drugweat as some want to believe! Elvis did cover two more White compositions. For Ol' Times Sake and i’ve Got A Thing About You Baby. Black And White also features Willie And Laura Mae Jones an everyday story of swamp folk of the lowlands in the South where black and white work together. “But that was another place and another time”.
Tony wrote Polk Salad Annie and Rainy Night in Georgia in the same week and he could not know then that from these two compositions he could live well the rest of his life. At that period Tony worked in a small club in Corpus Cristi, Texas, six days a week for 10 dollars a night. When Tony played the two new songs the texans threw broken beerbottles at him and wanted "real" country goddamnit! At first the songs did nothing for me. Tony just started to like Rainy Night when he heard Brook Benton doing it a half year after Tony was persuaded by Leann to record it. I just did that because I needed a slow song for the Continued album.
When Elvis did cover Polk Salad he stayed pretty close to the original version. Sometimes Tony drove to Las Vegas to hear Elvis perform Polk Salad. If Elvis knew Tony was in the audience he performed it just for him, sometimes the song took about twenty minutes. They talked often about Polk Salad, it was Elvis comeback on stage after nine years.
Tony Joe in 1969
His second album Continued features his second top 40 hit Roosevelt And Ira Lee (Night Of The Mossacin), Rainy Night In Georgia and For Le Ann a song for his wife.
My personal favourit is Old Man Willis. Rainy Night In Georgia was covered by many artists. Among them are Brook Benton, Gladys Knight and Randy Crawford.
Brook Benton sold more than 1 million copies.
The album Tony Joe brings us beautiful songs like High Sheriff Of Calhoun Parish, Stockholm Blues and the cover of John Lee Hooker’s Boom Boom. Groupy Girl and High Sheriff were both taken from this album and became hitsingles which entered high in the charts.
In 1971 Tony has signed a new record deal with Warner Brothers and his new album was simply called Tony Joe White. What else? The Inside sleeve of the album shows a beautiful picture of Tony and his daughter Michelle. Tony’s father Charlie White came up with some guitar licks on My Kind Of Woman. Another great song is Traveling Bones of which I prefer the acoustic guitar version on Live in Europe 1971.
This live album was recorded during an European tour. Tracks were taped in Germany, Belgium and the Royal Albert Hall in London. Three of the songs on this album have not been released before. These songs are Lustful Earl And The Married Woman, Mississippi River and Back To The Country.
Tony’s early work is laid-back rhythm and blues combined with a newstyle country sound. But his records did not sell in the country market. In the early 70's Tony’s music was called swamp rock. Tony brought swamp music out of the lowlands of the South to the world. Thank you Tony! Each Tony Joe White song is a complete storybook of southern life. Lyrics based upon real characters in his life and you need to know where the story is leading to. His unique music styled by his deep dark voice in combination with his ‘whomper stomper’ guitar and his soulful mouth organ. First people could not imagine that this voice belonged to a white artist. Sex has inspirated a lot of Tony’s songs. He finds it a beautiful thing and all the passionate grumbling sounds in his songs are a part of the same thing. A woman is a beautiful thing to him. Tony Joe White’s great love is composing and therefor you will find on his albums just his own songs. Only on the first three albums he plays a handful of covers. Songs like Otis Redding’s Hard To Handle, Bobby Russell’s Little Green Apples and Burt Bacharach’s Look Of Love. Of course they all have the special soulful sound which makes Tony Joe White so unique. During the 70's Tony toured with some great rock acts like Steppenwolf, Sly and the Family Stone and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Later on in his career Tony Joe White became known as the swamp fox.
His fourth album gives us Even Trolls Love Rock &amP; Roll and ten more beautiful Tony Joe White songs and a cover of 300 Pounds Of Hongry. All telling a complete story.
Tony’s own favourit album is Homemade Ice Cream. For Ol' TImes Sake, Ol' Mother Earth and Backwoods Preacher Man are surely great songs. He still likes its good little mood. He is especially fond of the acoustic guitars on it. The pictures of that album were taken by his wife Leann at Turkey Creek in Arkansas and the text on the album cover is in his own handwriting.
Three years later the album Eyes came out on 20th Century Records. Songs with a soft and sexy atmosphere. The romantic single Soulful Eyes was a small hit in Holland. Especially this smoothly produced album shows his passionate side in songs like You Taught Me How To Love, MakIng Love Is Good For You, Rainy Day Lover and the beautiful That Loving Feeling.
In 1979 the French Joe Dassin covered an entire album with seven Tony Joe White songs. Of course Tony himself and his friends Donald “Duck” Dunn and Mike Utley joined Joe Dassin on this complete French album Blue Country.
For this album Tony changed to the record company Casablanca where he could produce the album himself. And this album showes us a different Tony Joe White who was into rap and disco.The single I Get Off On It was a flop and again Tony went three years under cover. Other nice songs on the album are Grounded and Mama Don’t Let Your Cowboys Grow Up To Be Babies featuring the country singer Waylon Jennings. Waylon is a good friend of Tony Joe White. Tony considers him one of the few country guys who can put it really off. They recorded several songs together. Tony added a new recording of Even Trolls Love Rock &amP; Roll to the album.
With a beard and now on the CBS record label he came back with a strong new album. The recordings were done at Cotton Row Recording Studio in Memphis. The album has great songs like Dangerous, Naughty Girl and Do You Have A Garter Belt. Though his guitar playIng is less rough it is still there. The lyrics are strong and sexy as ever. My three year old son loves If You’re Gonna Love Somebody.
The early 90s brought Tony Joe White back into the spotlights of the music scene. Tina Turner and Joe Cocker sang his songs to the top of the charts. This drew extra attention to the work of Tony. At that time Tony had great inspiration and a lot of new songs came of his hand. The writing of a new song begins when Tony picks up something like a small piece of music or text. It feels like it already exsists and floods somewhere in the universe untill I pick it up. It must be the hand of God, why else could a boy from Louisiana with just a few years Elementary school write songs who people on the other side of the world like? But I am not really grateful to Him. Just a few times a year I jump in my Jeep and drive thirty miles from mt home in Franklin, Tennessee to Nashville. Where I go to a small black community church near Printer's Alley, the red district of Nashville. I go there for the music.
With the help of Roger Davies Tony was able to put a great new album together that was praised and sold all over the world. His songwriting brought him enough money. And therefor he can concentrate on his work only.
Before The Closer To The Truth album came out there was a particular long period for the album release. The reason therefor were the discussions with the record company about the way it would go commercially. Tony just decided to play a few blues clubs. Then write hIs songs and demo in the studio. Just trying to keep on working and not worrying about record companies. Tony wanted to do an album the way it should be done. Without someone saying change this or add these fillings or do that just to make a hit record. So it took seven years to make Closer To The Truth. It was recorded in the famous Muscle Shoals Studios In Alabama. Paid with his own money. And then Remark Paris loved the sound and put it out. Tony doesn’t think about styles, changes in styles, hit record or having a top ten album. For him it is not a matter of choice. It all comes naturally. The writing, the guitar playing and the singing is just one thing. Tony plays it the way he feels. He really cares about the people who spend their hard earned money on his albums. "They have to feel something and have to hear that I’ve done my best". The songs on Closer To The Truth are really Tony Joe White. No producer or record company involved. In the booklet of Closer To The Truth he already ‘announced’ the title of his next album by saying "Very SpecIal thanks to ... for helpIng me to stay on the Path of a decent groove". Because he had enough material a new album was soon to follow. In the past Tony had his problems of dealing with record companies. And this somewhat has increased his recorded output. For this reason the periods between albums were way too long for his audIence. But not this time!
Back in 1972 he wrote Ol' Mother Earth out of respect for the environment. Tony Joe wants to remind himself and others that we have to take care of our earth because there is not a lot of it. The engaged song Closer To The Truth is Powerful to Tony Joe "cause we don’t want to see the truth at all you know". He hopes we all start to care. Tony feels lucky because he has got a home in the mountains with a few cows and horses. This place is really remote in progress. It has woods and a river and you can still drink its water. Tony doesn’t preach about environmental issues but still wants to say something about it in a song. "The trees in the rainforests are falling down like dominoes".
Tony’s wife Leann is a good songwriter and a big influence on his work. She always has written a lot of poetry and she wrote lyrucs for several good songs luke The Undercover Agent For The Blues. Leann had that songtutle for two or three years and she left it laying In the room. Tony kept lookung at that title and when he start working on it asked Leann to sit down and write.
Tony's songs go where they go and that is it! It is like the song Tunica Motel. Tunica Mississippi is right outside Memphis. Fourty miles on highway 61 down to that delta where John Lee Hooker and Tina Turner played in the clubs. Tunica only has a gasstation, an ice cream place and a restaurant. There are three or four buildings in Tunica. And an old motel which Is falling down but you can still stay there. It is the place where Tony always goes to fish together with Donald `Duck` Dunn the bassplayer of Booker T &amP; The MGs. One night they drove all the way from Nashville to Tunica. It is an eight hour drive. They wanted to be at the river early and got a room in the Tunica Motel. It didn’t have any windows and the ceiling was falling down. So that song is about a real place and it is deep down south too. On the CD-single of Tunica Motel you will find a new bonus track The Blues.
Tony Joe White likes Europe. His greatest success he had in France but he was also popular in Holland, Belgium and Sweden. Holland he first visited on the 1972 tour wIth Creedence Clearwater Revival. In september 1973 he performed at London’s Crystal Palace garden party concert. His second visit to Holland was during his own European tour un 1991 when he performed with his band in clubs in Rotterdam (Nighttown) and Amsterdam (Paradiso).
About his Amsterdam experience he wrote in the song On The Return To Muscle Shoals "I was bedridden in Amsterdam. The silence of the guitar filled the room". It was a fantastIc atmosphere! In 1992 he came back again and performed at Parkpop, the largest festival free of charge in Europe, and a festival in Amsterdam.
For every new tour Tony Joe White is "almost scared like smell of fear and taste of courage". But with each show he is getting more confident. Tony finds it easier to perform his old songs live then the new songs. With an acoustic guitar he can get out on stage and sing for over an hour doing requests. He performs one to one to his audience. It’s dramatic and remarkable. Not that these old songs are simple but they are a part of him and his life. Some later songs would sound empty with only an acoustic guitar. People keep howling for the old songs like Polk Salad Annie and Even Trolls Love Rock &amP; Roll. Tony Joe White is not worried about his fans being of an older generation. They either buy it or they don’t! Tony finds himself an innocent bystander and the age of his fans has nothing to do with him. In his music and his performing he is always himself. It is a natural thing. He doesn’t think about images and he considers it a job being someone else. He doesn’t want to live that way. Off or on stage he is the same way. You can grasp his live act on Live In Europe 1971 and the German CD Roosevelt And Ira Lee on which you will find three earlier unreleased songs You Got Me RunnIng, When You Touch Me and Baby Please Don’t Go.
Three CD’s bring selections of the best songs of Tony Joe White. The Best of Tony Joe White out of the Warner archieves features twenty of his earlier work. Rainy Night In Georgia gives you fourteen early greats. Swampsnake Soul contains thirteen songs of all his work from Polk Salad Annie to Steamy Windows.
The thing with Tina just came spontaneous. Roger Davies was Tina Turner’s manager and Tony's manager. He heard Tony’s demo’s when he did them at home. These songs were not written for Tina. They were eight years old at the time and Tony performed them in clubs even before she ever heard them. It just came by. Mark Knopfler recommended Undercover Agent For The Blues to Tina. Tina knows what is good for her and cut a few Tony Joe White songs on two albums. Steamy Windows reached into the top 40. Tony also played several instruments on Tina’s albums.
Another beautiful album with thirteen songs. A self-produced and mostly an all self-instrumented collection which again mixes Southern stories (Up In Arkansas and Jaguar Man) with love songs and a reflection on his European travels (On The Return To Muscle Shoals and Catwalling Alley In Nice).
Brings great songs like Paris Mood Tonight and Down Again. Also Tony’s own version of Let The Healing Begin. The song Joe Cocker covered to a hit. Listen to the beautiful guitar lick in The Beach Life!
Tony and Leann White have three children. One daughter Michelle and two sons Jody and Jim Bob. Michelle is a songwriter in Los Angeles. She writes great songs and has a big publishing thing going on. She sings the blues with a real low girls voice. She sings the way she feels and she refuses to change. So she is taking her own long way to success untill someone comes along. Isn’t this the story of her father? Michelle married november 1998 on a rainy day and in 1999 her CD "Butter Scotch" was released.
Tony Joe White’s latest album is called 'One Hot July'. Again some fine songs. The ballad 'Selena' is great! In The Delta Singer Tony sings "You only got one way to play it, And the blues they never lie, but you get so tired of fighting the flavor of the week, And it drives you to a distant shore, Where you might find some peace". The story of Tony's musical career. He has to go abroad to Europe and Australia for his audience and that's his distant shore.
Jan 2000
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