TALENT OF TONY JOE WHITE* - Intro CD The Train I'm On* (& Outros)

TONY JOE WHITE GROUP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/127137227301877/

INTRO CD THE TRAIN I'M ON
(Tony Joe White, Jon Hurley, Ronnie Wilkins, Donnie Fritts & Eddie Hinton)
TONY JOE WHITE

Tony Joe White (born July 23, 1943, Oak Grove, Louisiana, United States) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, best known for his 1969 hit "Polk Salad Annie" and for "Rainy Night in Georgia", which he wrote but was first made popular by Brook Benton in 1970. He also wrote "Steamy Windows" and "Undercover Agent For The Blues" both big hits for Tina Turner in 1989; those two songs came by way of Tina's producer at the time, Mark Knopfler, who's a friend of Tony. "Polk Salad Annie" was also recorded by Elvis Presley and Tom Jones.

Biography - 1960s--1970s - In 1967, White signed with Monument Records, which operated from a recording studio in the Nashville suburb of Hendersonville, Tennessee, and produced a variety of sounds, including rock and roll, country and Western, and rhythm and blues. Billy Swan was his producer.

Over the next three years, White released four singles with no commercial success stateside, although "Soul Francisco" was a hit in France. "Polk Salad Annie" had been released for nine months and written off as a failure by his record label when it finally entered the U.S. charts in July 1969. It climbed into the Top Ten by early August, eventually reaching No. 8, becoming White's biggest hit.

White's first album, 1969's Black and White, was recorded with Muscle Shoals/Nashville musicians David Briggs, Norbert Putnam, and Jerry Carrigan, and featured "Willie and Laura Mae Jones" and "Polk Salad Annie", along with covers of Jimmy Webb's "Wichita Lineman". "Willie and Laura Mae Jones" was covered by Dusty Springfield on her album "Dusty in Memphis" also recorded in 1969.

Three more singles quickly followed, all minor hits, and White toured with Steppenwolf, Sly & the Family Stone, Creedence Clearwater Revival and other major rock acts of the 1970s, playing in France, Germany, Belgium, Sweden and England.

In 1973, White appeared in the film Catch My Soul, a rock-opera adaption of Shakespeare's Othello. White played and sang four and composed seven songs for the musical.

In late September 1973, White was recruited by record producer Huey Meaux to sit in on the legendary Memphis sessions that became Jerry Lee Lewis's landmark Southern Roots album. By all accounts, these sessions were a three-day, around-the-clock party, which not only reunited the original MGs (Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn and Al Jackson, Jr. of Booker T. and the MGs fame) for the first time in three years, but also featured Carl Perkins, Mark Lindsay (of Paul Revere & the Raiders), and Wayne Jackson plus The Memphis Horns.

1980s - Between 1976 and 1983, White released three more albums, each on a different label. Trying to combine his own swamp-rock sound with the popular disco music at the time, the results were not met with success, and White gave up his career as a singer and concentrated on writing songs.

1990s comeback - In 1989, White produced one non single track on Tina Turner's Foreign Affair album, the rest of the album was produced by Dan Hartman. Playing a variety of instruments on the album, he also wrote four songs, including the title song and the hit single "Steamy Windows". As a result of this he became managed by Roger Davies, who was Turner's manager at the time, and he obtained a new contract with Polydor.

The resulting album, 1991's Closer to the Truth was a commercial success and put White back in the spotlight. He released two more albums for Polydor; The Path of a Decent Groove and Lake Placid Blues which was co-produced by Roger Davies.

The Train I'm On was the fifth album released by Tony Joe White, and the second he released for Warner Brothers. It was produced by Jerry Wexler and Tom Dowd and recorded in 1972 at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

Track listing

All tracks composed by Tony Joe White, except where indicated

Side One
"I've Got a Thing About You Baby" 2:42
"The Family" (John Hurley, Ronnie Wilkins) 3:30
"If I Ever Saw a Good Thing" 3:21
"Beouf River Road" 3:20
"The Train I'm On" 3:09
"Even Trolls Love Rock and Roll" 4:56
Side Two
"As the Crow Flies" 3:50
"Take Time to Love" (Donnie Fritts, Tony Joe White) 3:02
"300 Pounds of Hongry" (Donnie Fritts, Eddie Hinton) 2:44
"The Migrant" 4:00
"Sidewalk Hobo" 3:54
"The Gospel Singer" 3:32

Personnel

Tony Joe White: Guitar, Harmonica
Tippy Armstrong: Guitar
John Hughey: Pedal Steel Guitar
Roger Hawkins: Drums
David Hood: Bass
Barry Beckett: Piano, Clavinet, Organ
Ronnie Barron: Organ, Electric Piano, Vibes, Congas
Charles Chalmers: Saxophone
String arrangements by Arif Mardin
Background vocal arrangements by Tom Dowd
Background vocals:
Charles Chalmers
Donna Rhodes
Sandy Rhodes
Terry Woodford
George Soulé
Jerry Masters