Tony Joe White Biography
23 July 1943, Oak Grove, Louisiana, USA. A country singer and songwriter, White was also tagged with the label ‘swamp rock’, a musical genre he helped to create. Raised on a cotton farm in Louisiana, he formed his first band, Tony White & His Combo, while still in his teens. He then formed Tony Joe And The Mojos before defecting to Texas to start Tony’s Twilights. He started recording as a solo artist in 1966 and many people presumed he was black after hearing his layered vocals. He had his first hit single on Monument Records with ‘Polk Salad Annie’ in 1969, later covered by Elvis Presley. Also contained on his debut Black And White was ‘Willie And Laura Mae Jones’, which was covered by Dusty Springfield. After succeeding once more with ‘Groupy Girl’, he wrote ‘Rainy Night In Georgia’, a hit for Brook Benton which became a standard. His first three albums were produced by Billy Swan, and Cozy Powell drummed for him at the 1970 Isle Of Wight festival. He moved to Warner Brothers Records in 1971, releasing three albums for the label. His late 70s recordings experimented with popular disco sounds, generating a hit in 1979 with ‘Mama Don’t Let Your Cowboys Grow Up To Be Babies’, an answer record to Ed Bruce’s country chart-topper of the previous year, ‘Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys’.
White spent the rest of the decade concentrating on his songwriting career, and bounced back into the public eye at the beginning of the 90s when Tina Turner recorded four of his songs including the worldwide hit, ‘Steamy Windows’. A recording contract with Remark Records led to a welcome string of new studio albums in the mid-90s. Though still an artist who refuses to compromise, albums such as Lake Placid Blues and the major label release One Hot Night indicated a man totally at peace with himself. The stripped down acoustic set The Beginning brought White’s career into the new millennium in some style, attracting a string of excellent reviews. The ensuing Snakey was the first release on White’s own Swamp imprint, while 2004’s The Heroines (the artist’s first North American release since One Hot Night) featured guest vocals from Jessi Colter, Emmylou Harris, Shelby Lynne and Lucinda Williams.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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