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Blues, country, swamp.

This is an interesting album from the late Tony Joe White, an innovative singer-musician-songwriter, who created his own individual sound and style, known as swamp-rock. Growing up around the bayous of southern Louisiana, his distinctive rustic, roots vibe followed a rich tradition of melding country, soul, funk and blues flavours to render a sound that was decidedly new, but with a rich deep-south Americana twist. Since his passing in 2018, his son Jody White, has been trawling through his father’s archives of unissued or criminally overlooked recordings. During the late 1970s into the early 1980s, Tony Joe was somewhat in the commercial doldrums, label-hopping whilst seeking a musical direction that would work for him. In 1980 he signed with Casablanca Records and released THE REAL THANG, an eight-track album in a one-off record deal. The LP failed to make an impact and kind of disappeared without trace. Jody came across the album and several unissued recordings from the same period. which has resulted in this excellent collection of tracks. This is not just for dedicated fans who would’ve missed out on some great recordings over the years, but also for the inquisitive music fan, who will discover much to enjoy here. Buried loot, indeed.

Some critics and fans have called these lost recordings a new direction at the time for Tony Joe White, but it was also a more of a pin-pointed distillation of where he was headed all along. A meticulous sound and musical arrangements are off the stratosphere, creating a fluent, immersive record that will delight beat-heads, ravers and chin-strokers alike. His signature vocals and guitar work, as with his earlier releases, retained an exhilaratingly seductive calling card. Indeed, THE REAL THANG is as much about his development as a musician as it is about a suite of atmospheric moods, signifying a finely struck balance between bristling tension and a refinement of technique. The kind of album you want to play as you drive down long highways, with the top rolled down. This is an album—a body of work—that stands up and could easily be classed as one of the best of his career.

Opener, Goodbye LA, is a long lost, previously unissued gem. The song leans into a slinky groove that carries notes of r&b and country soul, with a smoothness that feels like cruising through the city on a hot summer night. Tony Joe’s husky vocals ring through your mind long after the sound fades away as you try to make sense of the final verse, which seems at odds with the rest of the song. Mama’s Don’t Let Your Cowboys Grow Up to be Babies is a neat twist on the old Waylon & Willie hit. It could almost have been novelty in nature, but performed with gusto; driving rhythm, penetrating guitar and harmonica, with Ol’ Waylon singing backup—cream on top of the pudding. The camaraderie of Jennings is very apparent throughout many of these tracks, none more so than on Cowboy Singer. A co-write between the two of them. This dates from a time when they were regularly hanging out together. The song features rich acoustic guitar blending into electric blues licks, among soulful harmonica, with the songwriter and guitar whiz honing his craft and musing on the life of a country star’s life on the road: private jets, romantic liaisons, endless highways and the loneliness and despair, all in the search for fame and success.

He offers a fresh interpretation of his self-penned That’s the Way a Cowboy Rocks n Rolls, a much-covered song, turned into a country hit by Jacky Ward in 1980. The version I remember with great fondness is by Charlie Rich. The lyrics are a mix of world-weary romanticism, homespun wisdom and daydreamy meditations on the universe. Let’s Trade Heartaches is a sultry bedroom ballad with a story line of love, loss and heartache. His deeper vocal tone magically makes this lovely sad song even sadder. The second half of this 20-track set explores Tony Joe’s more funky, up-tempo sounds. From the insistent beat of Alligator Stomp through the deeply rhythmic, slyly catchy Swamp Rap to I Get Off On It, which fuses glitchy soul rhythms and atmospheres, rendering a seductive mix that wouldn’t be out of place on a disco floor. To round-off the album, there are a couple of previously unissued songs. Fine Country Woman revels in a homespun homily in this delicate ode to his wife Leann. There is a minor euphoria that comes with this honesty—especially as it's served in such a stylishly produced song. He closes with Gringo, a rare instrumental written by White and Jennings and featuring the latter’s phase-shifted telecaster tone and delicate acoustic lead playing from Tony Joe. Overall, his music may have changed, an altered style in a discography heavy on singular themes, but the heart, the beating core that immediately connects Tony Joe White’s music to anyone willing to listen, is apparent throughout.

Tracks:
1 Goodbye LA
2 Mama’s Don’t Let Your Cowboys Grow Up to be Babies
3 Cowboy Singer
4 It Just Don’t Get It No More
5 Redneck Women
6 I Came Here to Party
7 That’s the Way a Cowboy Rocks n Rolls
8 Let’s Trade Heartaches
9 She Sits Close to the Driver
10 Pour Me Another Memory
11 Hangin’ On
12 Alligator Stomp
13 Swamp Rap
14 I Get Off On It
15 Grounded
16 Even Trolls Love Rock n Roll
17 Polk Salad Annie
18 Disco Blues
19 Fine Country Woman
20 Gringo

Staat er compleet op, 10% pars mee gepost. Met zeer veel dank aan de originele poster. Laat af en toe eens weten wat je van het album vindt. Altijd leuk, de mening van anderen. Oh ja, MP3 doe ik niet aan.