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Dan Auerbach, the Black Keys frontman, had always been a big fan of the late Tony Joe White. The singer-songwriter known as “The Swamp Fox,” White had an unmistakable swampy baritone and down-home style. He was best known for songs like “Poke Salad Annie” and “Rainy Night in Georgia,” and over his career, White’s songs were recorded by the likes of Elvis Presley, Waylon Jennings, Ray Charles and Tina Turner, among others.
Yet, Tony Joe White is no household name, as his son, Jody White, recently discussed on the Load Out Music Podcast. Indeed, the elder White didn’t have a record deal from 1978 into the 1990s, but it was by his father’s own choosing.
“The label wanted him to move to LA or New York and they gave him money, and he was like, ‘nope,’ and bought a farm in Arkansas in the middle of nowhere,” said Jody White. “He didn’t want to tour…he would tour some and put on great shows. But he wasn’t going to run himself into the ground. He came from picking cotton in the middle of Louisiana to all of the sudden touring all over the world. He couldn’t do that 365.”
In 2018, Tony Joe White passed away after suffering a heart attack in Tennessee. Afterward, Jody White was going through his father’s things and found boxes of reel-to-reel tapes filled with hundreds of demos that no one had ever heard. It was a treasure trove of classic material just sitting in storage. So, Jody sent an email to Auerbach with one of the tracks, as for years the two had spoken about a collaboration. And what has come of the partnership has been a terrific collection of new music from the legendary Tony Joe White—seemingly one of the coolest cats ever to play a stage.
“He had just so much cool that it even made some around him uncomfortable,” Jody White recalled. “The way he tells these stories, they would feel so real…all of those stories are based on something but they’ve all been, you know, he’s made them to be like his own sort of tale. His own swamp tale.”
In speaking about the unique character studies his father would create in his songwriting, Jody White pointed to a song from the Auerbach sessions called, “Over You.”
“The lyrics are heartbreaking,” he noted. “About being married his whole life to the same person, and this person being in the hospital and dying. But none of it was true. You listen to the song and you want to tear up.”
After the exchange with Auerbach, Jody White took hold of nine unreleased Tony Joe White demos. He transformed vocal-and-guitar performances into full-band arrangements and what would become Smoke From the Chimney, a posthumous album of fresh Tony Joe White music released on Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound label.
But Jody White wasn’t done there. Since Smoke dropped in 2021, there’s been a series of singles including the exceptional “Panther Ridge,” “’Bout to Dance (in My Pants)” with the Flying Mojito Bros., “Living off the Land,” and there are more to come.
Maybe you know Tony Joe White. Perhaps you do not and it’s time to acquaint yourself with a poke salad-eating young lady from the bayou for a sheriff from Calhoun County or even Bubba as he fishes for the record large mouth bass. It’s worth it.
Enjoy a great conversation with Jody White, who’s helping bring these character studies back into the limelight. We discuss it all on the latest Load Out Music Podcast!