NEW YORK (www.conqueroo.com/Sanctuary Records) - Tony Joe White, best known for his swamp pop smash hit 'Polk Salad Annie,' is putting the finishing touches on his first new recording in six years. The album, titled The Heroines, features several of White's favorite female artists who are the heroines to which the title refers - Lucinda Williams, Shelby Lynne, Emmylou Harris, Jessi Colter and Tony Joe's daughter Michelle White.
The Heroines (86366) is White's first new U.S. recording in six years and is his first for Sanctuary Records. Street date is September 28, 2004.
For the new album, White wrote three of the 10 songs (not counting the framing solo acoustic instrumentals 'Gabriella' and 'Gabriella's Affair') with his wife Leann, who also took the cover portrait, and he sings the balmy 'Playa Del Carmen Nights' with his daughter Michelle.
Additionally, four lady friends duet with Tony Joe on the LP, their presence evidencing his impeccable taste in quality women and female artists both. One by one, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Shelby Lynne and his old friend Jessi Colter intertwine their voices with White's gritty, ultra-laid-back baritone, and the results of these down-home dalliances are captivating.
Southern gentleman that he is, Tony Joe steps aside to permit Lynne to sing the opening verse of 'Can't Go Back Home,' which they wrote together, so that hers is the first voice you hear on the album. His duet with Williams on the smoldering 'Closing In on the Fire' packs such an erotic charge that a mate less secure than Leann would've never permitted it. Harris joins White on the timeless country-folk piece 'Wild Wolf Calling Me,' one of the conjugal co-writes, while Colter adds her knowing vocal to Tony Joe and Leann's 'Fireflies in the Storm.'
'I had known these women for a long time,' says White, 'and they've all been like heroes to me through the years. They'd recorded my songs, and we were all good friends. Not only that, but I had loved their voices and the way they played. And all of 'em are soulful. Even though a lot of 'em do country, it's still a soul thing to me, Emmylou especially. And Jessi Colter gave it totally up for Waylon [Jennings, her late husband] and stayed with him through the years. But she's still got that unbelievable soulfulness in her voice.'
White came steaming out of Louisiana with the red-hot hit 'Polk Salad Annie' in 1969. Influenced by Elvis Presley and Lightnin' Hopkins, White's music merged into a style all his own. He recorded nine albums in the '70s, and as a songwriter his tunes have been recorded by some of the biggest artists in the world including Ray Charles and Brook Benton scoring No1 hits with White's classic 'Rainy Night In Georgia.' He's also written for Elvis, Tina Turner, Dusty Springfield, Joe Cocker, Waylon Jennings, Kenny Chesney and more.
In the '80s, White focused on Tina Turner and Joe Cocker, contributing four songs to Tina's multi-platinum Foreign Affair on which he also played guitar and harmonica. He recorded three successful European albums in the '90s before signing an American deal in '98 – only to see the label subsumed in the Universal/PolyGram merger.
