Tony Joe White Tickets

Short Biography

TONY JOE WHITE NEW ZEALAND TOUR MARCH 2013

You may know him as the Swamp Fox, you may know him by his birth name, you may just know his timeless music, but it doesn't really matter how you know him - the main thing is that you're acquainted at all with the one-and-only Tony Joe White.

This bona fide legend of the music game has been honing his craft now for the best part of 50 years. He was literally born for the blues, the part-Cherokee musician being brought up as part of a big brood on a cotton farm in Louisiana, raised on a diet of Lightnin' Hopkins and local bluesmen, an upbringing reflected to this day in his evocative, haunting music and adding a veneer of authenticity to everything that he touches.

His recording career has now spanned parts of six different decades and spawned over 20 albums, and he's had his songs recorded by Elvis Presley, Tina Turner, Ray Charles, Roy Orbison, Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones and Etta James, so he's clearly no mug with a tune. He can dish them out himself though, having worked with genre stars such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, The MGs, Eric Clapton, JJ Cale, Waylon Jennings, Lucinda Williams and Emmylou Harris, to name but a few of the big names who've shared a stage or studio with White over the journey.

And TJW is no peddler of mere nostalgia, he's still relevant as ever - his last album of studio originals, The Shine (2010) was lauded by many as up there with his finest work ever.

So whether you've been with White for the duration or are a newcomer to his incredible music it matters not - come along and join the festivities when the inimitable Tony Joe White hits New Zealand in March 2013. You just can’t keep this good man down.

In-depth Biography
Tony Joe White has parlayed his songwriting talent into a modestly successful country and rock career in Europe as well as America. Born July 23, 1943, in Goodwill, LA, White was born into a part-Cherokee family. He began working clubs in Texas during the mid-'60s and moved to Nashville by 1968. White's 1969 debut album for Monument, Black and White, featured his Top Ten pop hit "Polk Salad Annie" and another charting single, "Roosevelt and Ira Lee (Night of the Moccasin)." That same year, Dusty Springfield reached the charts with White's "Willie and Laura Mae Jones." Brook Benton recorded a version of White's "Rainy Night in Georgia" that hit number four early in 1970; the song has since become a near-standard with more than 100 credits. White's own "Groupie Girl" began his European success with a short stay on the British charts in 1970.

White moved to Warner Bros. in 1971, but success eluded him on his three albums: Tony Joe White, The Train I'm On, and Homemade Ice Cream. Other stars, however, continued to keep his name on the charts during the 1970s: Elvis charted with "For Ol' Times Sake" and "I've Got a Thing About You Baby" (Top Five on the country charts), and Hank Williams, Jr., took "Rainy Night in Georgia" to number 13 on the country charts. White himself recorded Eyes for 20th Century Fox in 1976, but then disappeared for four years. He signed to Casablanca for 1980's The Real Thang but moved to Columbia in 1983 for Dangerous, which included the modest country hits "The Lady in My Life" and "We Belong Together."

White was inactive through much of the '80s, but worked with Tina Turner on her 1989 Foreign Affair album, writing four songs and playing guitar and harmonica. He released Closer to the Truth a year later for his own Swamp label and toured with Eric Clapton and Joe Cocker to very receptive French crowds (Closer to the Truth has sold 100,000 copies in that country alone). His 1993 album Path of a Decent Groove was released only in France, though Warner's The Best of Tony Joe White earned an American release the same year. Lake Placid Blues (1995) and One Hot July (1998) were Europe-only efforts until 2000, when Hip-O Records brought out One Hot July in the U.S., giving White his first new major-label domestic release in 17 years. But White was just beginning to roll, or reroll, as the case may be. The critically acclaimed The Beginning appeared from Swamp Records in 2001, followed by Heroines, featuring several duets with female vocalists, from Sanctuary in 2004, and a live Austin City Limits concert, Live from Austin, TX, from New West Records in 2006. In 2007 White released another live recording, Take Home the Swamp, as well as the compilation Introduction to Tony Joe White. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide