Most songwriters write about what's familiar to them, so maybe it's not surprising that the humble Pokeweed would serve as inspiration for a talented and husky-voiced young man named Tony Joe White, who came out of Louisiana forty years ago with his crossover hit, "Polk Salad Annie".
The "Swamp Fox" (as he's sometimes known) has always been difficult to pigeonhole. Southern blues? Country? Swamp rock? As a songwriter, he's been recorded by Elvis Presley, Tina Turner, George Jones, Ray Charles, Waylon Jennings and many other stars, which gives you an idea of how tough it is to classify his music.
He's always been popular in other parts of the world too and his first minor hit, "Soul Francisco", became successful in Europe before it did in the US. His biggest hit, though - the one about Annie - was actually kind of a dud at first. It took some hard work and promotion, but eventually it took off and became his signature tune.
For our sampling, I'm going to go ahead and post "Polk Salad Annie" so you can hear all about findin', fixin' and eatin' greens, and then follow that with "As The Crow Flies". Both are from the album The Best Of Tony Joe White.
Article comments
1 - Jon Sobel
I really enjoyed this piece - the personal story and the tribute to Tony Joe White. He may be hard to classify as an artist - but the fact that his songs have been recorded by artists of various genres means that as a songwriter, he's not hard to classify at all - just "good." One of the marks of a good song is that it can be done in different ways with the same success!
2 - -E
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