THE RIVER WAS DARK AND MUDDY

The river was dark and muddy

And the moon was on the rise

And all of the creatures in the swampland

Had woke up to feed for the night

Yes, we have been to see Tony Joe White. Still out there at seventy-three doing his unique and wonderful thing. Sold-out in three days.

I saw him once before ten [?] years ago just him unaccompanied for the first six songs then with a drummer on the bare bones of a kit for the rest of the gig. He took requests: incredible, never seen a big American star do that before. We almost saw him in Memphis in a bar when his career was on the downward slope in I think 1989 but we had to catch a bus to New Orleans that night and had to give it a miss.

Okay, okay it’s simple stuff: three chords E,G &A [mainly E] and all the songs sound the same but that’s what I want. I don’t want experimentation from this guy. I want the swamp music he has 

mastered so well.

Don’t know his work?

The lyric above is from Roosevelt and Ira Lee

He wrote Rainy Night in Georgia.

For Tina Turner he wrote Foreign Affair, the title of her come-back album after Ike and also for Tina, Steamy Windows. Polk Salad Annie, my least favourite track of his was a big hit in the seventies.

Just lovely to see him again.