Tony Joe White

Tony Joe White

WHITE MAN'S BLUES
Tony Joe White is a Living Legend of Swamp Rock
The pen behind Brook Benton's "Rainy Night in Georgia," Tina Turner's "Undercover Agent for the Blues," Joe Cocker's and Etta James's recordings of "Out of the Rain," and the title cut of B.B. King's MAKIN' LOVE IS GOOD FOR YOU belongs to Tony Joe White, a songwriter who knows no genre boundaries. He is also the singer with a dark and deep-as-a-swamp-bottom voice who had a 1969 hit of his own, "Polk Salad Annie." White has recorded steadily since the late '60s, at times taking to the U.S. country charts, at others, hitting the European pop charts. In fact before American was groovin' on "Polk Salad Annie," White's ever-faithful French fans had already dubbed him "Le Swamp Fox" and his music, "swamp rock." But now White has a new release stateside, ONE HOT JULY, and he plans to tour behind it this summer. Barnes&Noble.Com's Roberta Penn caught up with White at his country home in Tennessee, where he raises horses, writes songs and, yes, has polk salad growing right outside his office door.

B&N.com: Congratulations on your song, "Makin' Love is Good for You" being the title track of B.B. King's new album.

TJW: Are you serious? Does he sing the song?

B&N.com: He sure does.

TJW: I've been traveling in Europe and kind of out-of-touch, so I didn't know that. He was one of the last holdouts, one of the last blues artists who hadn't done one of my tunes. You just made my day.

B&N.com: I've had an advance tape of ONE HOT JULY for two years,and it's just now coming out here. What happened?

TJW: I was on tour with that album in Australia where it had already come out, and the record companies changed hands. I got caught in the crunch. It came out in Europe and was getting some really wonderful response there, and then, when the companies blew down, people over there couldn't get it. Now I think Hip-O will do a better job with distribution.

B&N.com: ONE HOT JULY is a real melancholy record.

TJW: That's a soft word for it. That record is deep, deep gloom in spots. A lot of the songs were written when I was have having a lot of trouble. My balance was messed up from flying so much, and I just stayed on the couch for a year or two, only getting up to write. Now I'm back, but writing songs like these is important.

B&N.com: In the title, cut you talk about not feeling like you're a part of anything. Did the dizziness cause you to withdraw that much?

TJW: That's a real heavy song about a loss in the family. My grandson got killed on a four-wheeler; he was 7-years-old. I felt like I had ceased to be a part of anything. A lot of people go to therapy, but I let my deep feelings about things out in music. I did it with a song.

B&N.com: "I Want My Fleetwood Back" is a great tune. Did you really own one and have to sell it?

TJW: It's a lonesome tune 'cause I had to let my Cadillac go, but it's danceable. I bought it new in '75, then ten years later, I needed money for income tax, and it was also too long and wouldn't fit in my garage. So I sold it.

B&N.com: What do you drive now? Have you bought a new Caddy?

TJW: [ laughs] No, I want that one back. Now I drive a Dodge Ram Truck.

B&N.com: You raise quarter horses. Is that a business, or are you just one of those horse people?

TJW: I got four mares just about to drop any night now, and I love 'em all. But I've got so many I may have to sell some. I ride the stallion some, but the rest are just mamas with their babies. What I really love to do is go out there late in the afternoon and just watch the herd and have a few cold beers and just look at them. You don't see herds of horses much anymore, it's the old way.

B&N.com: You write songs the old way too, don't you? Instead of teaming up with folks in Nashville to brainstorm, do you wait for inspiration?

TJW: Usually, I just write it as it comes to me, just the spirit moving me. It's totally free. I could never just sit down and try to write a tune so I may write just five or six songs a year. But they're the ones that matter to me.

B&N.com: How about touring? You do more in Europe and Australia than in the States, don't you?

TJW: I was telling my son the only American jobs I've had over the past six years was playing for his fraternity party each year at U.T.I go to Europe and Australia, but don't stay out on the road much. But the road is good. I have to do it, just to get in the stream. And there's a song in it a lot of the time. I'll be doing some dates behind this record, though.

B&N.com: How do you think you've managed to stay a crossover artist all these years without being categorized as rock or country or pop?

TJW: I've been very lucky with my writing. From the very start, I decided to write about what I knew about, not for radio or charts or Billboard, but write about what came through me. I thought, in the early days, if I keep that up instead of putting it in a commercial corral, who knows, when I'm 65 years old, I might write a really good song.