Tony Joe White Polk Salad Annie Live CD - Import

This 1998 issue is an excellent set, because it is actually a complete reissue, without deviation, of the 1969 Tony Joe White album Black and White on Monument with a new cover and title. The tracks are in the same order and the sound is not appreciatively different from the current Black and White remastered edition in the box set of Monument reissues. The track list here is as impressive as it gets, and so are the personnel: David Briggs, Norbert Putnam, and of course Tony Joe on guitar, all produced by the great Billy Swan. The track list is quite impressive: along with the title, there are the original versions of "Willie and Laura Mae Jones," "Whompt Out on You," "Soul Francisco," and "Aspen Colorado," all of which are originals, fleshed out by stellar covers of "Little Green Apples," "The Look of Love," and "Wichita Lineman," to name but a few. It says "Licensed from Intermusic S.A." on the back and one assumes that it's official, but one can never be too sure. One way to be certain you are getting a licensed copy is to buy Black and White from Tony Joe's website, but if you see this lying in a bin somewhere cheap, snag it. ~ Thom Jurek

Tony Joe White's Polk Salad Annie Live album is built around a concert recording made in 1969 or 1970. It features White swaggering through a clutch of tough-as-rock blues and soul covers like Big Joe Williams' "Baby Please Don't Go," Otis Redding's "Hard to Handle" and Jimmy Reed's "You Got Me Runnin'" as well as some originals. "I Want You" is a sludgy, nasty groover that has some truly scuzzy guitar solos and sounds like it could have come off a Jon Spencer Blues Explosion record, one of White's trademark swampy story songs "Roosevelt & Ira Lee (Night of the Moccasin)," and "When You Touch Me," a slight and uninteresting jam. Too bad the whole concert sounds like it was recorded through a wall of steel wool. The vocals are muffled at times; the sound cuts in and out and generally sounds no better than a hastily made bootleg. A couple of the songs ("I Want You" in particular) show White to be a dynamic performer with a lot more guts than one might imagine. As a dubious bonus, the record ends with a version of "Polk Salad Annie" that sounds like it was taped off the radio. It might be an alternate take, maybe a demo, more likely it is exactly what it sounds like. It shouldn't be here regardless. Too bad a live version of the song isn't. This material has been released four or five times over the years by various labels. ~ Tim Sendra

Liner Note Author: William Hogeland.