Tony Joe White has never lost perspective. The writer of “Polk Salad Annie” and “Rainy Night in Georgia” doesn’t hurry and he doesn’t work too hard. He once told his son Jody, “I didn’t get into this to mess up my fishing.”

Born and raised in Oak Grove in north Louisiana, his musical education took him to Corpus Christi, Texas where he played the blues solo influenced by Lightnin’ Hopkins before heading first to Memphis, then on to Nashville, where he met Bob Beckham of Monument Records, w...