photo: Joshua Black Wilkins
The Swamp Rat lives.
A new single has come forth from Louisiana music legend Tony Joe White. “Boot Money,” released in the video above, represents the first posthumous sounds from White since his 2018 passing at the age of 75.
According to NPR, White’s son Jody had been friends with Black Keys front man and star roots-rock producer Dan Auerbach. Jody introduced Auerbach to his dad and hoped the two would someday work together on a new White record.
Alas, they didn’t happen during White’s lifetime, but the son found some unfinished demos and sent them to Auerbach to finish out and make into a ‘new’ Tony Joe White album.
It’s not clear when White cut his demo for “Boot Money” but you could draw a line straight from “Polk Salad Annie” to “Boot Money,” and it would be a very short line: Both of these are prime exemplars of White’s swamp pop, even down to the storytelling-style delivery from the outset, filtered through his baritone gravelly moan with a guitar rhythm never too far off from John Lee Hooker’s boogie blues.
White’s great strengths as a songwriter derive from being able to express personalities and situations close to his core being. This first-person account of blue-collar livin,’ best summed up by his line “I may be a poor man, but I always got some loot,” is sung by someone who’s lived the life. At least, you will firmly believe it.
Dan Auerbach does nothing to get in the way of that singular vibe on “Boot Money.” The demo needed full instrumentation, yes, but Auerbach brought in some of Nashville’s finest sessionists and recorded them live around the bare bones left behind by White. Auerbach himself handles the a howling guitar lead. None of this is a stretch for him: The retro, soul-drenched blues-rock that the Black Keys are famous for traverses a lot of territory first staked out by White back in the 60s.
“Boot Money” and eight other previously unheard Tony Joe White songs will be released as the album Smoke From the Chimney on May 7, 2021.
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