Tony Joe White - Deep Cuts (2008)

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Tony Joe White - Deep Cuts (2008)

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Revered as one of the originators of swamp rock, Tony Joe White has recast a number of his classic songs on Deep Cuts, proving that time has no jurisdiction over funky. His signature groove, starting from his 1969 hit "Polk Salad Annie," is what he uses to paint a vivid picture of the world he experienced growing up, where poverty provided unity between otherwise divided races and bad-news women were sometimes too good to pass up. Tony Joe cut the tracks with his son Jody providing a rich palette of beats and loops, utilizing both digital and live drums, strings, organs, and the unmistakable timbre of his guitar. White's time-worn baritone is positively haunting, like a restless spirit conjured by the funk that was always the core of his music. As a collective work, Deep Cuts portrays the complications of living on the cusp of impending danger, be it an encounter with a brutal country sheriff or a poisonous snake through the eyes of a master songwriter who has seen and lived all of it. Deep Cuts not only updates a cache of classic songs for a contemporary audience, it reframes them, revisiting his timeless imagery in a new, modern context. With Deep Cuts,Tony Joe reveals that there is still plenty to be gleaned from his irresistible, timeless groove.

Swamp-rock auteur Tony Joe White is best known for "Polk Salad Annie", so it's surprising it's not on this set of revisitations.

But the rest of his Louisiana characters reappear, from the vengeful "High Sheriff (of Calhoun Parish)" to hapless "Roosevelt & Ira Lee" and downhome chums "Willie and Laura Mae Jones", in new arrangements framing White's baritone and distorted fuzz-wah guitar lines in beats and loops furnished by his son Jody.

The result is a series of evocative grooves, like the dark "As the Crow Flies" and the strangely sinister instrumental "Homemade Ice Cream". "Willie and Laura Mae Jones" becomes a sort of trip-hop swamp-funk, while his ambivalent celebration of hippie culture, "Soul Francisco", is a haunted miasma of organ, strings and fuzz guitar.

Review by Andy Gill, Independent.co.uk

'Deep Cuts' features swamp-rock supremo Tony Joe White re-recording some of his songs from the 60s/70s with his son Jody providing beats and loops, utilising both digital and live drums, strings and keyboards. Essentially Tony is still doing exactly what he started doing in the 60s - singing and playing John Lee Hooker-style trance blues on guitar and harmonica but suddenly here it sounds bang up-to-date. There are echoes of both the artists on the Fat Possum label and also groups like the White Stripes and the Black Keys. With the opening track "Set the hook" you think you know exactly what you're getting then the stings come in and it really surprises you. Personally I do prefer the original, more acoustic version "As the crow flys" from the early 70s but all the tracks here have a great modern feel and sound wonderful and I'm sure they'll win Tony many new fans. In fact you can't help wishing that Tony had included reworked versions of some of his most popular songs like "Polk Salad Annie", "Rainy Night in Georgia", "Steamy Windows" etc.

Review by G. E. Harrison, Amazon.co.uk

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Tony Joe White - Deep Cuts (2008)

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Tony Joe White - Deep Cuts (2008)

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Tony Joe White - Deep Cuts (2008)

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