Tony Joe White. The Swamp Fox. The chameleon of sound and environment. The “Polk Salad Annie” singer’s five-decade legacy spanned country, rock, and other genres that fit his real-time fancy, all injected with a little bit of swamp funk to stamp it positively his own. And as it goes with many prolific musicians, not all of his music was released to the public. His son Jody White has set out to rectify this injustice by re-releasing the overlooked 1980 album The Real Thing and combining it with some unreleased gems he dug out of the dusty archives.
Little is known about the actual recording date or place for the new-to-the-world single “Goodbye L.A.,” a country tune that, if not written during his time hanging and working with Waylon Jennings in 1970s Los Angeles, certainly carries that Jennings outlaw energy. The new 18-track album lays out a journey from Texas to Louisiana, starting with this track about a cowboy who’s been in LA for too darn long. It’s time to journey home.
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