Tony Joe White’s appearance at Tipitina’s this fall became a pleasantly unexpected trip through his substantial catalogue. One of the highlights was “The High Sheriff of Calhoun Parrish,” a story song about falling in love with the wrong girl. In the booklet that accompanies Swamp Music, White tells the story of playing the Bottom Line in New York City and getting a note passed to him: “Please play ‘High Sheriff of Calhoun Parrish.’ BD.” The BD in question was Bob Dylan, who like so many musicians was an admirer of White’s.

Swamp Music packages together White’s first three albums and a fourth disc that features him alone in a studio doing covers and live at the Isle of Wight in 1970 backed only by British drummer Cozy Powell. It’s easy to hear these albums and understand why label executives thought White was going to be big. He was soulful from the first bar of “Willie and Laura Mae Jones” on his Black and White debut, and the song arrangements were southern R&B, cut in Memphis with a number of Muscle Shoals players on the sessions. His love of wah-wah guitar and distortion gave him a slightly psychedelic rock ’n’ roll sound, and with all those bases covered, how could he miss?

 

Now, we know the answer. People think they like genre-crossers, but cutout bins are full of genre-crossing artists, and his songs and voice are truly southern in a way that CCR wasn’t. The same way that Hollywood likes “real” people that look far better than real people, John Fogerty’s accent-free, caricatured South was more fun and easier for many to enjoy than the real thing found in White’s songs.

Besides delivering four solidly entertaining albums and some novel covers—he finds his way to a surprisingly affecting “Look of Love”—Swamp Music is definitive proof that one of America’s most idiosyncratic musical voices was the master of his art from the beginning of his career.

 

Swamp Music is only available in a limited edition from RhinoHandmade.com.