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Magazine: Nieuwsblad van het Noorden. |
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Tony Joe White sadly slip-slides away in the blues.
Review: Tony Joe White. Happening: Concert Tony Joe White. Heard: Wednesday 25 Oktober, Oosterpoort, Groningen. Public: 556. With the newly released cd Uncovered in his pocket, Tony Joe White currently travels, for a short tour, through Europe. Wednesday he visited Groningen, and the hour and a half that the 63 year old American sat on the stage were hardly uplifting. Right from the start with Stockholm blues is was evident that White was going to fight his way through his set. Seated, with the black hat on his head and a pair of dark sunglasses covering his eyes, White personified the blues. Not the blues in which the swinging, fast funk and soul came through as it did in his reigning days of the nineteen seventies. No, these were the blues of a worn-out artist trying to play his trick, at an old age, one more time. Not inspiring funky, groovy blues, but blues which continuously dragged the seduction of depressing melancholic thoughts. This way it seemed the devil (or was it the alcohol?) had taken control of White, in the tradition of the legendary Robert Johnson, who had sold his soul to the devil in exchange for the blues. White received a stiff drummer instead which also did not help him to deliver a sparkling performance. Personally the talented guitar player played sloppily and his, once deep and powerful, voice carries traces of decline. It is not without reason that he is backed up by several guests on his most recent albums. On Uncovered J.J Cale and Mark Knoppfler also participate and it is the same nasal sound which characterizes these two on a bad day which now took possession of White. Without a band, almost completely on his own, it was somewhat sad to witness the respected musician perform. Not that the public let him down, White should consider himself wealthy with such loyal fans. They saw the age creased face of their hero, a man of age, who was, to put it mildly, treating his own oeuvre with little respect. Only at the end of the show did White dare to perform his classic songs, songs that have been made world famous by artists such as Elvis Presley (Polk Salad Annie), Brook Benton and Randy Crawford (Rainy Night in Georgia) and Tina Turner (Steamy Windows). These hits are indestructible, but White has lost vitality as performer. |
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Peter van der Heide Nieuwsblad v/h Noorden (NL) October 26 2006 |
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