Description

Singer-songwriter Tony Joe Whites most well-known hit led off this way Some of yall still never been down Southdown there weve got a plant, looks somethin like a turnip green. Cept it aint.

Polk Salad Annie was the song and cadence for delivering Whites unmistakable swamp rock sound, which called to mind the sound John Fogerty whipped up on Creedence Clearwater Rivivals Bayou Country and Green River.

Released in 1969, Whites album debut Black and White contains some of the best swamp-folk-soul-funk of the era. White grew up in the soggy marshlands of Louisiana, his real-deal deep voice sounding like its dredged from the bottom of the Delta. Rural life in the dirty south provided the inspiration for witty, sometimes funny, and sometimes poignant lyrics (later Tony Joe would pen the smash Rainy Night In Georgia).

This Analogue Productions edition is the highest-quality reissue of Black and White released to date. It was mastered from the original analog tape by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, and features unsurpassed plating and pressing on 180-gram heavyweight vinyl by Quality Record Pressings, makers of the finest-sounding LPs in the world. The dead-silent LP playing surface captures Whites voice and his strong and funky backing band in true analog majesty.

Besides Annie, side one of Black and White includes several other White originals. AllMusic judges the best of these to be Willie and Laura Mae Jones, a song about race relations with an arrangement similar to Ballad of Billie Joe, and Soul Francisco, a short piece of funky fluff that had been a big hit in Europe in 1968. Aspen, Colorado presages the later Rainy Night in Georgia, a White composition popularized by Brook Benton.

The second side of Black and White consists of covers of hits of the era, with the funky Whos Making Love and Scratch My Back faring better than the slow stuff. Dusty Springfield had a minor hit with Willie and Laura Mae Jones, and Whites songs were recorded by other performers through the years, but Polk Salad Annie and the gators that got her granny provided his only march in the American hit parade.

Highly recommended for fans of Creedence Clearwater Revival, J.J. Cale, and 1960s soul!