Tony Joe White – Smoke From The Chimney (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 42:52 minutes | 524 MB | Genre: Country
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Easy Eye Sound
Tony Joe White’s posthumous album, ‘Smoke From The Chimney’, brings to life previously unknown recordings by the legendary songwriter and musician. Produced by Dan Auerbach from nine unreleased vocal/guitar demos and performed by an ensemble “who capture the DNA of Tony Joe White’s songs with beauty, warmth, and reverence.” (NPR’s Bruce Warren).
Starting with the album’s genesis as an unforeseen trove of demos in the hands of producer Dan Auerbach and rounded out by Nashville’s most seasoned studio musicians, ‘Smoke from the Chimney’ started out as a number of unadorned voice and guitar demos from White’s home studio before being transformed into full band arrangements harkening back to the albums he recorded in the late 60s and early 70s in Nashville and Muscle Shoals – just as he was emerging as an internationally recognised songwriter and recording artist.
A pioneer of the Louisiana swamp rock sound, White’s eclectic legacy has persevered through decades of influence, covers and popular culture. Across five decades as a performer and storyteller, Tony Joe White- a.k.a. “The Swamp Fox” – left an indelible mark on American music. His catalogue offers indisputable classics such as “Polk Salad Annie” and “Rainy Night in Georgia,” and his songs have been recorded by Ray Charles, Kenny Chesney, Waylon Jennings, Tim McGraw, Willie Nelson, Elvis Presley, Dusty Springfield, and Tina Turner.
‘Smoke from the Chimney’ captures Tony Joe White’s signature style in its purest form and serves as a living testimony to one of the most gifted lyricists and storytellers music has ever known.
While the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach is forceful and creative enough as a guitar player to front a duo, his Easy Eye Sound label may be an even more impressive achievement. With Smoke from the Chimney, Auerbach has taken his producing talents a step further, delicately building a full band album around the skeleton of demo tapes left by the man who wrote “Rainy Night in Georgia,” and “Polk Salad Annie”—the great Americana forefather, Tony Joe White. While the world is full of unfinished demo tapes, few attempt this kind of resurrection even in today’s world of digital technology because what was originally intended died with its creator. But White just passed in late 2018, and his son Jody, who worked with father, was a part of the process. The timing is also right: Auerbach’s growing respect for Americana’s past makes him the logical choice to successfully flesh out what White had in mind. The arrangements and enhancements built around these demos are for the most part respectful and very much in keeping with the way White’s career was going at its end. It also helps that in his final decade White mostly toured as solo act with just a drummer—à la the Black Keys—and his Stratocaster playing was very reminiscent of the kind of loud, bluesy electric pyrotechnics that Auerbach is famous for. On top of those advantages, White’s voice retains its rough charms throughout and according to Auerbach was not manipulated in any way despite the presence of “vocal engineer” Ryan McFadden. And then there’s the quality of the demos; Auerbach had lots to work with. These were not threadbare throwaways—many are as good or better than what appeared on White’s last albums. With its melodic choruses, ideal loping tempo and old pro Bobby Wood on Wurlitzer electric piano, “Listen to Your Song” is the album’s successful pop tune, working beautifully despite sounding too modern. “Del Rio, You’re Making Me Cry” is an Old West tale with a bittersweet chorus that also benefits from vets like Paul Franklin on pedal steel as White gently croons, “Sometimes it don’t rain enough/ To settle the dust/ But that West Texas rainbow/ Reminds me of us.” And “Bubba Jones,” with White in a near whisper and Auerbach and Marcus King leaning into the guitars just as White would have, is a classic Tony Joe White backwoods parable. The spark may be gone but there’s still a lot of fire under this smoke. – Robert Baird
Tracklist:
1. Smoke From The Chimney (5:04)
2. Boot Money (3:28)
3. Del Rio, You’re Making Me Cry (4:25)
4. Listen To Your Song (5:25)
5. Over You (5:29)
6. Scary Stories (5:16)
7. Bubba Jones (4:26)
8. Someone Is Crying (4:33)
9. Billy (4:52)
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