Videos by American Songwriter
It looks like the Swamp Fox is back in the henhouse.
On September 28, Louisiana-born singer-songwriter Tony Joe White will return to the mix with the first proper blues album of his career.
The album, titled Bad Mouthin,’ features a handful of blues covers, including Lightnin Hopkins’ “Awful Dreams” and Charley Patton’s “Down The Dirt Road Blues,” along with five White originals, including two “lost songs” from the old days.
White’s extensive back catalog, which includes such well-known hits as “Polk Salad Annie” and “Rainy Night In Georgia,” plays out like a hell broth of rock and roll, blues, country and R&B. But for White, the music begins and ends with the blues.
“When and where I grew up, blues was just about the only music I heard and truly loved,” the 75-year-old artist said. “I’ve always thought of myself as a blues musician, bottom line, because the blues is real, and I like to keep everything I do as real as it gets. So, I thought it was time to make a blues record that sounds the way I always loved the music.”
The album was produced by White’s son Jody and recorded in a barn on Tony Joe’s home property, with little more than his prized ’65 Fender Strat serving as accompaniment. All tracks were cut in one or two takes.
Below, you can stream the song “Cool Town Woman” from the album.
“I think she’s a woman from town, you know, and the singer/writer is a country man,” White said of the track. “And he was almost dealing with someone over his head. She would get the coolest clothes from Paris, France, but also would carry a knife.”
Bad Mouthin’ will be released on Yep Roc.
