The complete Monument recordings of southern soul-tinged swamp rock trailblazer
Tony Joe White – in a wonderful box set from the deep catalog explorers at Rhino Handmade! Swamp Rock contains everything from the Black &
White, Continued and
Tony Joe LPs – with dozens of previously unreleased work from the era. Unlike the most famous dude we can think of who wears the swamp rock genre tag,
Tony Joe White really was reared in the swamp country of Louisiana – and genuineness shows on these fine recordings! His vocals here have a bit of that laconic storyteller vibe of a Bobby Bare type character – but the production and arrangements have a real feel for the Stax and Muscle Shoals sounds. It's a blend of styles that's quite unique – and well worth rediscovery! Includes all the tracks from
Tony Joe's 3 LPs for Monument plus a swampful of great bonus numbers from those sessions and more – a whopping 81 tracks on four CDs! Disc one includes the Black &
White LP and much more: "Willie And Laura Mae Jones", "Soul Francisco", "Whompt Out On You", "Wichita Lineman" and more. Disc 2 features the Continued LP and more: "Elements And Things", "Woodpecker", "Old Man Willis", "Woman With Soul" and much more. Disc 3 includes the
Tony Joe LP tracks and more: "Stud-Spider", "Widow Wimberly", "Save Your Sugar For Me", "Hard To Handle" and more. Disc 4 includes a slew of previously unreleased material cut at Barclay Studios in Paris, plus live work from
Tony Joe at the Isle Of Wight: titles include "Mississippi Delta", "Chain Of Blues", "Ballad Of Hollis Brown" and more from the Barclay sessions, plus "Boom Boom", "I Want You", "Groupy Girl" and more from Isle Of Wight.
(In nice shape!)