Welcome to the weekend and round two of the birthday tribute sweepstakes. Today, we're celebrating one of the originals, born on the bayou.
Yes, it's a Saturday Night In Oak Grove, Louisiana, birthplace (73 years ago this day, that is) of one of Joshy's personal favorite swamp foxes, Tony Joe White.
Who is Tony Joe White? If you don't know, I'm not sure I can help you by describing him. But if I had to use one phrase to lay it down, I'd say TJW is in the conversation for the funkiest white person ever born on this Earth.
He's been at the forefront of the genre he helped invent -- call it Swamp Rock -- for nearly 50 years of storytelling in his songs. That's the thang about Tony Joe: every one of his tunes is like a miniature Southern novel. With funk. Lots of it. The deep kind.
Ah, those songs. Many of them tell some truth, hidden in the grooves. His track Willie and Laura Mae Jones is as perceptive a track as could be written about race relations, ripped from yesterday's, today's and tomorrow's headlines. He also wrote Rainy Night In Georgia, a song covered more times than a four poster bed in a convent.
He was born this day in 1943 and to honor the Whomper Stomper I have been busy putting gigabytes of gigs into the cloud, including two performances -- given 21 years apart -- at the distinguished Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and a 2CD compilation of his formative catalog I made and funk to in my phone when I am out and about.
Tony Joe White
1969-2013
1.
47th Montreux Jazz Festival
Auditorium Stravinski
Montreux, Switzerland
7.20.2013
01 Undercover Agent for the Blues
02 Do You Have a Garter Belt?
03 Roosevelt and Ira Lee
04 Tell Me Why
05 Holed Up
06 Rainy Night In Georgia
07 The Gift
08 Gypsy Epilogue
09 Polk Salad Annie
Total time: 48:26
Tony Joe White - vocals, guitar, harmonica
Bryan Owings - drums
720p PAL DVD of an SRF ZWEI-TV DVB-S broadcast
47th Montreux Jazz Festival
Auditorium Stravinski
Montreux, Switzerland
7.20.2013
01 Undercover Agent for the Blues
02 Do You Have a Garter Belt?
03 Roosevelt and Ira Lee
04 Tell Me Why
05 Holed Up
06 Rainy Night In Georgia
07 The Gift
08 Gypsy Epilogue
09 Polk Salad Annie
Total time: 48:26
Tony Joe White - vocals, guitar, harmonica
Bryan Owings - drums
720p PAL DVD of an SRF ZWEI-TV DVB-S broadcast
3.67 GB total
2.
"Swampsnake Soul"
26th Montreux Jazz Festival
Casino
Montreux, Switzerland
7.14.1992
01 Willie and Laura Mae Jones
02 Do You Have a Garter Belt?
03 Undercover Agent for the Blues
04 Tunica Motel
05 Good In Blues
06 Bayou Rhythm
07 Ain't Goin' Down This Time
08 Closer to the Truth
09 Polk Salad Annie
10 Main Squeeze
11 Rainy Night In Georgia
12 Steamy Windows
13 Even Trolls Love Rock 'n' Roll
Total time: 1:12:39
Tony Joe White - guitar, harmonica
Jay Davis - bass
Marc Cohen - drums
Hally Marvin - keyboards
bootleg CD, "Swampsnake Soul," on the Trade Service/Rare Recording Collection label; likely sourced from a master FM broadcast
408 MB FLAC
26th Montreux Jazz Festival
Casino
Montreux, Switzerland
7.14.1992
01 Willie and Laura Mae Jones
02 Do You Have a Garter Belt?
03 Undercover Agent for the Blues
04 Tunica Motel
05 Good In Blues
06 Bayou Rhythm
07 Ain't Goin' Down This Time
08 Closer to the Truth
09 Polk Salad Annie
10 Main Squeeze
11 Rainy Night In Georgia
12 Steamy Windows
13 Even Trolls Love Rock 'n' Roll
Total time: 1:12:39
Tony Joe White - guitar, harmonica
Jay Davis - bass
Marc Cohen - drums
Hally Marvin - keyboards
bootleg CD, "Swampsnake Soul," on the Trade Service/Rare Recording Collection label; likely sourced from a master FM broadcast
408 MB FLAC
3.
TJW1
1969-72
01 High Sheriff of Calhoun Parish
02 Willie and Laura Mae Jones (alternate version)
03 Woman with Soul
04 Aspen, Colorado
05 Hard to Handle
06 I Thought I Knew You Well
07 Elements and Things
08 Dusty Marshmallow
09 Woodpecker (alternate version)
10 Stud Spider
11 Groupy Girl
12 I Want You
13 Toil & Trouble
14 Roosevelt and Ira Lee (Night of the Moccasin)
15 Whompt Out On You
16 Funky Fingers
17 I Can't Stand It
18 Rainy Night In Georgia
19 Mississippi Delta
20 Polk Salad Annie
Total time: 1:19:31
TJW2
1973-1976
01 A Night In the Life of a Swamp Fox
02 Voodoo Village
03 Even Trolls Love Rock 'n' Roll
04 Lustful Earl and the Married Woman
05 No News Is Good News
06 Sign of the Lion
07 Saturday Night In Oak Grove, Louisiana
08 As the Crow Flies
09 Backwoods Preacher Man
10 Black Panther Swamps
11 The Change
12 The Gospel Singer
13 Delta Love
14 Don't Let the Door (Hit You In the Butt)
15 Homemade Ice Cream
16 The Daddy
17 They Caught the Devil and Put Him In Jail In Eudora, Arkansas
18 The Family
19 Making Love Is Good for You
20 Copper Kettle
21 Did Someone Make a Fool Out of You
22 300 Pounds of Hongry
Total time: 1:19:55
both volumes zipped together
912 MB FLAC
the DVD and the CDs are in the same folder/July 2016 archive link
That's a lot, but then so is Tony Joe so I guess I prepared a feast fit for a king. Pull whichever items tickle your tweeters down and let the Swamp Fox funk up your weekend accordingly... I'll return with yet more Friday Night Funk for Saturday Night Brothers soon. And oh yes... the best of 73rd birthday wishes to Tony Joe White, still crawfish after all these years!--J.
