Tony Joe White: the king of swamp puts the hoodoo to work

American singer-songwriter and blues guitarist Tony Joe White has just released Hoodoo, his latest - 38th - album in France. After rising to fame back in 1968 with the hit song Polk Salad Annie, later famously recorded by Elvis, his music continues to inspire. He talks about the autobiographical roots of his new album, its super swampy feel, and the importance of keeping his music real.

Tony Joe White

With his trademark Stetson, shades, and python guitar strap, Tony Joe White still cuts an imposing figure. But his near-on fifty year career has left him swampier and more chilled out than ever.

He’s channelled that feeling into the soulful, largely autobiographical album Hoodoo.

“I was trying to keep just a cool groove to the album,” he says, “and the whole thing had a lot of sweetness to it and a lot of swamp. We kept it really swampy.”

Many of the songs were inspired by his early years growing up in a large, modest family on a cotton farm in Louisiana, near the swamps.

9-foot sack talks about picking cotton on the farm. “It was hard work,” he says, “harder than playing guitar.”

The Gift tells the story of a young lad going to a local graveyard for old bluesmen to write songs. The music ends up allowing the bluesmen to find rest, at long last.

White says he discovered the blues himself aged 15, when his brother brought home a record by Lightnin' Hopkins. “It just turned me around,” he says.

The Flood – about the floods in Nashville in 2010 – recounts more recent personal history.

The water came up to within two inches of White’s studio.

“I nearly lost my whole life’s music,” he says. Fellow musicians were less lucky. “One music friend lost 500 guitars …they all just went floating down the river.”

White works his magic on Hoodoo, but it sure ain’t black.

“Hoodoo has nothing to do with voodoo,” he says. “It has to do with luck and good things. Like sometimes a woman can put the hoodoo on you and you can’t think of nothing but her; it has to do with charms and spells.”

Over the years, White’s music has worked its charm on some of America’s greatest musicians.

Elvis turned his Polk Salad Annie into a huge hit in 1970; Tina Turner recorded his Steamy Nights. 

Ray Charles, Randy Crawford and, most famously, Brook Benton have done memorable recordings of the great song Rainy Night in Georgia. Most recently, Rod Stewart and Boz Scaggs have done their own versions too.

In total, there’ve been 156 recordings of the song.

“I love them all,” says White, but adds that Benton’s is his personal favourite. “He put so much soul into it.”

But you can’t put soul in if there isn’t any in the first place.

White is modest in analysing why his music has stood the test of time.

“I think the music’s lasted because I always tried to make the songs real,” he says “and not try to write them for radio or TV or hit records or nothing, just to write what was in my heart. And I think a lot of artists felt that when they sing them.”

Tony Joe White is currently touring northern Europe.

Tony Joe White's official website