ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
October 22, 2004
TONY JOE WHITE
The Heroines
(Sanctuary)
Seminal swamp-rocker White still possesses the same languid drawl, dry humor and spiky guitar style that drove his 1969 hit “Polk Salad Annie.” But he shows his sensitive side here, merrging his brooding vocals with those of fellow iconoclasts Jessi Colter, Emmylou Harris, Shelby Lynne and Lucinda Williams. They complement his laid-back authority, while the stripped-down arrangements enhance the steamy Southern soul vibe, making this a worthy addition to his estimable catalog. B+
- Scott SchinderHARP
December 2004
Rants & Faves
TONY JOE WHITE
The Heroines
(Sanctuary)
Tony Joe is the rebirth of cool
A white Southerner who feels blues and funk in his bones, Tony Joe White has never strained for effect. Debuting with the swamp-rock classic “Polk Salad Annie” 35 years ago, he’s seen his sultry sound appropriated by Mark Knopfler (among others), been covered by Elvis Presley and Tina Turner (among others) and consistently made music that has the mesmerizing power of a steamy summer night. Mixing old and new compositions, The Heroines co-stars female singers on five songs, yielding mixed results. White’s deep voice has a drowsy sensuality reminiscent of Barry (no relation) White, so the overwrought Lucinda Williams seems painfully out of place on “Closing in on the Fire.” But he meets his match on the stunning “Can’t Go Back Home,” trading sleepy verses with a sublime Shelby Lynne. Elsewhere, White is typically charismatic on solo tracks like “Back Porch Therapy” and “Robbin’ My Honeycomb,” spinning atmospheric tales of passion. He might be the coolest man alive.
—Jon Young
NASHVILLE CITY PAPER
September 24, 2004
White returns to American music scene
By Ron Wynn
Anyone who doesn't follow the European music scene might be forgiven for wondering what happened to soulful vocalist and songwriter Tony Joe White. That's because although he's been steadily working and touring over there, White hasn't had an American label effort in more than six years.
"I haven't stopped worked and singing," White said during a recent phone interview from Paris. "But I just hadn't found the right deal to do anything in America until this project came along. These are women who I've admired for much of my professional life, and it was a great chance to do something with them and also do some of my own songs."
The Heroines contains so many marvelous duets it is hard to single any out, although the numbers "Closing In On The Fire" with Lucinda Williams and "Wild Wolf Calling Me" with EmmyLou Harris are both wondrously done. Other numbers include contributions from Lynne, Jessi Colter and White's daughter Michelle.
Interestingly, while many vocalists either have difficulty describing their music or prefer not to specifically describe it, White is succinct and direct in assessing the various elements of his style.
"Blues, soul and country, those are the things that come out in all my songs," he said. "I can't put it any more directly than that. Those are the things that I grew up listening to and still love very much to this day."
The Louisiana-born White exploded on the music scene in 1969 with the whimsical swamp-pop hit "Polk Salad Annie," a tune that's still a big favorite on the oldies radio circuit. The next year he truly struck gold - despite the fact many fans remain unaware that it was Tony Joe White that wrote "Rainy Night In Georgia," not Brook Benton. Benton's magnificent vocal turned the song into an international standard, and it remains one of the most covered numbers ever written. However, White's composing, playing and singing talents soon attracted the attention of many others, and he began touring with such artists as James Taylor and Credence Clearwater Revival. He also had songs recorded by everyone from Ray Charles and Elvis Presley to Tim McGraw, John Mayall and Waylon Jennings.
Unfortunately, despite his undeniable talent, White has never been enjoyed a consistent presence on the American charts. But he is a revered figure in Europe, and throughout the '90s steadily recorded and worked with artists like Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker and Tina Turner, on whose Foreign Affairs release he played harmonica, did background vocals and contributed four songs.
However, White's quite pleased about the pending release of The Heroines and said: "We're going to be playing a lot of new and some old material for the next few weeks, reminding everyone that we're still around and sounding as good as ever."
But that's now changing with the Tuesday release of The Heroines (Sanctuary), a disc that pairs him with several female artists White calls "among the greatest voices I've ever heard." He's appearing tonight at B.B. King's alongside one of those singers, Shelby Lynne, in a show beginning shortly after tonight's Americana Awards ceremonies.
BILLBOARD / REUTERS
September 25, 2004
Words & Music: Tony Joe's Campfire Songs
By JIM BESSMAN
Some people swap stories around the campfire; others, like Tony Joe White and Shelby Lynne, write songs.
They wrote a handful together a few years ago, when Lynne, who grew up in Alabama and resides in California, was living near White's place in Franklin, Tenn.
"We were brought up similar," drawls White, who hails from northeast Louisiana. "She came over and said, 'Where do you go to write songs?' I said, 'I bring cold beers and an acoustic guitar and build a campfire close to the river [Leipers Creek] behind my house.' She said, 'Mind if I come over some time?' "
One of the resulting songs, "Can't Go Back Home," is the lead track of White's new album "The Heroines," which Sanctuary will release Sept. 28. The disc, which follows his 2002 album "Snakey," features duets with Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Jessi Colter and Lynne.
"If you're looking to describe 'cool,' just look at Tony Joe," Lynne says. "There's such a vibe about him. And he taught me a lot of things: He said, 'If you didn't live it, don't write it.' "
White, of course, embodied the term "swamp rock" with his 1969 top 10 hit "Polk Salad Annie." The Tony Joe White Music Publishing (BMI) writer also penned Brook Benton's 1970 classic "Rainy Night in Georgia," which was a top five hit. And among those who have recorded his songs are Elvis Presley, Dusty Springfield, Ray Charles and Tina Turner.
He estimates that 85% of his songs are written around the campfire, "because I got Indian blood in me [Cherokee], I guess. I got to be out there among the sounds."
He and Lynne co-wrote "Can't Go Back Home" in one night.
"We went in and cut it in my studio here and got her beautiful voice on it and kept it for everybody's entertainment the last five years," White continues. "Then my son Jody—who takes care of my business—came to me with the idea of doing a duet album. So I took Shelby's track and added my voice to it."
White and Lynne performed together three months ago at a show in Birmingham, Ala., and "completely freaked out the whole place," White says. As for future collaborations, he says, "she'll have to come back here because I don't think she can build a fire at her place in L.A."
Besides Lynne, White collaborates with his wife, Leann, with whom he wrote three songs and two instrumentals on "The Heroines." For her part, Lynne doesn't look to collaborate with anyone else.
"We get together and light a campfire and sit around and drink a couple beers and talk about life and being southerners—and how we feel comfortable with each other just being southerners," she explains. The BMI writer adds, "One of the best things in life is when you're given a gift, and Tony Joe's such a gift to all of us who love the roots music."
BILLBOARD
TONY JOE WHITE
Album Title: The Heroines
Producer(s): Tony Joe White, JD White
Genre: COUNTRY
Label/Catalog Number: Sanctuary 86366
Source: Billboard Magazine
Originally Reviewed: October 02, 2004
New releases from swamp rock titan Tony Joe White don't come along very often, and this one is special, indeed. White pays homage to his favorite female singers here, and it's a real treat to hear his spooky baritone mesh with the opposite sex. But the set is never lacking in grit. Shelby Lynne matches White soul to soul on the smoldering "Can't Go Back Home," and Lucinda Williams is a swamp-funk queen on "Closing In to the Fire." Emmylou Harris brings style and substance to the desperate "Wild Wolf Calling Me," and White thumps with authority with the great Jessi Colter on "Fireflies in the Storm." White honors women, though, even on his own, as on the appreciative "Ice Cream Man" and sly "Rich Woman Blues." He shows his mean streak on "Robbin' My Honeycomb" and the cantankerous "Chaos Boogie." White's guitar is a star as well, and the instrumental bookends ("Gabriella" and "Gabriella's Affair") are all mood and atmosphere.—RW
ROLLING STONE.COM
Tony Joe White The Heroines (Sanctuary)
Louisiana swamp rock icon Tony Joe White loves the ladies, and they love him back on The Heroines . On this collection of righteous duets, he calls upon some of roots music's most revered female singers, and his deep baritone flows beneath their voices like a river of aged bourbon. Shelby Lynne brings her sultry best over humming B3 organ on "Can't Go Back Home," which she co-wrote with White. Lucinda Williams joins White on "Closing In On the Fire," a sensual rocker propelled by a rhythm reminiscent of Williams' "Hot Blood" with a dose of Memphis horns and distorted wah wah guitar. "Wild Wolf Calling Me," with Emmylou Harris, evokes dusty trails with its languorous cowpoke tempo and just a bit of honky-tonk fiddling. White steps out on his own on tunes like the wicked "Ice Cream Man" ("Sometimes she's a little girl lickin' on an ice cream cone"), but he's already preparing another duets project where the gents get their due -- not surprisingly called The Heroes . (MEREDITH OCHS)
AMAZON.COM
Editorial Reviews
For The Heroines , Tony Joe White invited some of his favorite female friends to the party. Unlike Hollywood movie stars, White likes his costars within spittin' distance of his own age. Shelby Lynne 's lines in "Can't Go Back Home" fit like a glove; her voice is reminiscent of White's own, like someone simultaneously whispering sweet nothings and the secrets of the universe into your ear. Lucinda Williams ,Emmylou Harris , and Jessi Colter also join the swamp fox on a record that provides plenty of what one tune aptly calls "Back Porch Therapy." The Heroines manages to tweak your libido and save your soul, magically, at once.
-Michael Ross
STUDIO CITY SUN
October 15, 2004
Tony Joe White, The Heroine (Sanctuary Records)
Top Ten Reasons for Tony Joe White Getting into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
1. The man almost single-handedly put swamp pop into the national consciousness with his mind blowing hit “Polk Salad Annie” in 1969. Before that song grabbed the nation’s earwaves, the southern Louisiana music was the domain of a small but sensational group of singers like Lightnin’ Slim, Lazy Lester, Jivin’ Gene and Guitar Gable. It had an eerie mix of romantic desperation and fevered frivolity that made it perfect for kissing cousins of all persuasions. White took swamp pop out of the backcountry and into the light with his seminal song, even if most listeners around the United States thought he was probably talking about picnic sandwiches, at best.
2. White was one of the first big male pop stars to have the guts to exert his God-given right to go by all three of his names, establishing a tradition that continues flourishing to this day. Granted, some observers may see it as a bit of a throwback to a more rural way of knowledge, but try telling that to Stevie Ray (if he was still around, bless his heart), Billy Bob or any other tri-tagged gentleman.
3. Besides being a singing fool, the man also earned his stripes as one of the Muscle Shoals mafia on guitar, performing on all kinds of sessions over the years at the Little Studio That Could in northern Alabama. Among a host of greats, like Jimmy Johnson, Pete Carr and even Duane “Skydog” Allman, White took backseat to no man when it came to pulling magic from his six strings.
4. Tony Joe White’s “Roosevelt and Ira Lee” was one of the first racially aware songs coming from the pen of a person in the middle of it all, showing a social astuteness that opened the doors for other writers to follow suit.
5. The Louisiana man perfected the art of doing exactly what he wanted, the commercial demands of musical stardom be damned. White often disappeared for years at a time, content to send his songs out into the world in the voices of people like Dusty Springfield, Elvis Presley and Hank Williams Jr.
6. Paved the way for other recalcitrant artists like J.J. Cale to also turn their backside to the musical starmaking machinery. It almost got to be fashionable to tell the media to take a hike in the early ‘70s, creating a new anti-publicity game plan still in play at present.
7. Wrote and first recorded “Rainy Night in Georgia,” one of the most lonesome songs to ever grace the Top 10, when the song climbed to Number 4 by Brook Benton in 1970. To this day, under the right conditions, White’s classic can cause listeners to pull over to the side of the road when heard over the car radio.
8. Helped Tina Turner solidify her comeback with the Foreign Affair release in 1989. White wrote four songs, as well as playing his patented guitar and hazy harmonica on the album, aiding in the reestablishment of one of America’s natural treasures, letting her explore a bluesy side for the first time in far too long.
9. Gave the French a reason to love at least one American. TJW toured the country opening for Eric Clapton and Joe Cocker in the ‘90s, and has sold the majority of his recent albums there. One, Path of a Decent Groove, had a France-only release.
10. Tony Joe White makes a stellar return on The Heroines, as strong an album as he’s ever made. Joined by several famous females--Shelby Lynne (wow!), Michelle White, Jessi Colter (Waylon Jennings’ widow) and a steamy Lucinda Williams—White sounds positively inspired. The last song, “Chaos Boogie,” one-ups the Fat Possum blues posse, again demonstrating that both attitudinally and latitudinally it’s a soulfully straight line from the northern hills of Mississippi to Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Chomp, chomp, chomp.
