Tony Joe White fans have plenty of reasons to be excited. With the oversight of his son Jody, Tony’s estate is re-issuing the 1980 album The Real Thang. The album contains all eight original tracks plus 10 never before released tracks and is available now. Jody White, who had managed his dad’s career since around the year 2000, explained, “We’d always had a storage unit that was filled with stuff and very disorganized. He never looked back. That was the thing about my dad. He was always wanting to do something next. People always ask me, ‘You had all these songs; why didn’t you do anything with them before?’ Well, he never brought it up. I didn’t know it was there!”
The Real Thang did not garner much attention at the time it was released, yet it contained some real gems such as “Red-Neck Women,” “Disco Blues,” the amusing “Mama Don’t Let Your Cowboys Grow Up To Be Babies,” and a harder-edged “Polk Salad Annie.” And the new tracks – “Good-bye L.A.” and “Cowboy Singer” – are gems in their own right.
Tony Joe White was a singer, songwriter, and guitarist known for a funky brand of country music that blended blues, rock, and R&B with traditional country sounds. He possibly was one of the most underappreciated artists of his time despite being an iconic figure who earned the nickname the Swamp Fox, a nod to his Louisiana origins.
“That was all self-imposed,” according to Jody. “He didn’t want to play the game (they) wanted him to play. He didn’t want to move to New York or L.A. or do press, radio, or tour all the time. He wanted to go fishing!”
For Tony, it was all about the music and engaging with the audience. “One hundred percent,” Jody said. He loved playing shows.”
Touring was another thing altogether. Tony would go out on tour with Waylon Jennings but when a scheduled break would bring him home at the halfway point, he would loudly proclaim, “I’m not going back out, Waylon!”
According to Jody, “The touring back then was wild. They were on a tour bus and my dad wasn’t a big partier. He would drink beer and stuff but he never did any drugs or stuff. I think that scene was a lot for him to handle back then. You had Hell’s Angels for bodyguards. They were raising hell and it was awesome. But it was a lot different from what he was. He was so laid back and liked things quiet. So it was a lot for him to take in.”
Tony and Waylon were the best of friends, even though Waylon would proclaim Tony was “lazy” for not going back out on tour.
The two met sometime in the late ‘70s and had an instant connection and respect for each other. Tony and Waylon started working together. Tony and family moved to Nashville in 1982.
Jody recalled, “My earliest memories (after the move) was of going over to Waylon Jennings house and watching football when the Cowboys played, going over for Thanksgiving, and going swimming. We were just going over there all the time.”
After a slight pause Jody added, “They were best friends! They had a lot of mutual respect for each other. But they were both kind of like kids in a way. They would get into arguments over something really silly. And they would be like, ‘I’m not calling him! He’ll have to call me!’ But they were best friends.” And before long they would be talking to each other again.
Waylon appears on The Real Thang on “Mamas Don’t Let Your Cowboys Grow Up To Be Babies” and is mentioned in the new track entitled “Good-bye L.A.” Tony and Waylon also co-wrote the new release “Cowboy Singer.” More about that song shortly.
Tony’s wife, Leann White, co-wrote half the tracks on The Real Thang, including the above-mentioned “Mamas Don’t Let Your Cowboys Grow Up To Be Babies.”
“She wrote a lot of amazing songs with him,” Jody says. “Some of his most important songs she was involved with. The way she described it to me, she was more of a poet. She would write these lyrics and she would give them to (Tony). Then he would go out to the campfire, maybe add some other lyrics or change things around, and put it to music.”
As for his mom, Jody says, “Yeah, my mom is still alive. She’s 83 and she’s so excited to see all this happening.”
“All this” includes not only the release of the album with the new tracks but the resurgence in Tony Joe White’s popularity. According to Jody, the streaming numbers over the last year are up over 60 percent. And there is “a lot more” unreleased material such that, in Jody’s words, “I can release new Tony Joe White music as long as I’m here.”
One more item of interest to Tony Joe White fans. His estate – represented by Jody – has teamed up with Blackberry Farm Brewery to produce Cowboy Singer beer. It is described as a “crisp and refreshing international lager.” It is available only in the Nashville area right now but Jody hopes to expand to other markets.
Tony Joe White’s songs such as “Polk Salad Annie,” “A Rainy Night In Georgia,” and “I Got A Thing About You Baby” have been recorded by such artists as Elvis Presley, Brook Benton, Tina Turner, Tom Jones, Clarence Carter, and many more. With the unreleased recordings Jody now has in his possession, there just may be many more albums and many more songs recorded by today’s artists.
