Blues Masters Live

When Tony Joe White walked onto the Blues Masters stage — shades on, Telecaster in hand, and his amp dialed well past respectable — everyone in the room felt the temperature rise.

By the time he launched into his first serpentine riff, you could practically smell the cypress and river mud. Photographer John Volk said it best: "He's the swamp Lou Reed." And on this electrifying new live album, Blues Masters Live, you hear exactly why.

White performed for the sixth annual Blues Masters at the Crossroads taking place in October 2003 at Blue Heaven Studios in Salina, Kansas. In 1969 Tony Joe came howling out of the swamplands of Louisiana into the national spotlight with his classic "Polk Salad Annie" — a Top 10 hit. The following year, Brook Benton hit No. 4 with White's "Rainy Night in Georgia."

For his Blues Masters set, recorded live, White unloaded. His harmonica work growls; his electric guitar cuts with a signature, grease-slicked tone only he could coax from six strings. This is the same songwriter whose tunes were covered by Elvis, Ray Charles, Joe Cocker, Etta James, Tina Turner, Waylon Jennings and more — a murderer's row of artists who knew genius when they heard it. And here, captured in full analog glory, he simply sits down and plays his soul out.

For guitarists, this is a masterclass in restraint and raw power. For vinyl lovers, it's a room-filling immersion into swamp rock at its most unfiltered.

Side A opens with the slinky, blues-soaked "Rich Woman Blues," followed by a faithful, storytelling-steeped "Willie and Laura Mae Jones." White turns the groove darker and funkier on "Undercover Agent for the Blues" before his humor surfaces in "Do You Have a Garter Belt," and then he digs deep into working-man blues with "Rico." Every track bristles with his trademark swamp swagger.

Flip the record and Side B detonates with a performance so hot it sizzles, taking down the crowd with "Steamy Windows." Followed by the cult-favorite "Even Trolls Love Rock and Roll," and dropping into the gritty motel-window vignette "Tunica Motel." White's voice thickens; as the side closes, the crowd roars for the inevitable: a ferocious, funk-strutting "Polk Salad Annie." 

All of the night's action was captured in full pristine sound by the recording engineers — the late David Baker, the noted former chief engineer for Vanguard Records — and Katsuhiko Naito, leading New York City jazz recording engineer, and a chief engineer for Al Di Meola's Churchill Studios.

Capturing it all in glorious fashion, this 33 1/3 RPM LP will put you the center of the action. Mastered from the original analog tapes by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab, and pressed on flawless super-silent vinyl at Quality Record Pressings, you get a direct-to-board gatefold jacket to house the record. 

Blues Masters Live is Tony Joe White at full fire — no pretense, no polish — just swamp blues played with unbreakable conviction.