Tony Joe White - Closer To The Truth (1991)

"Closer To The Truth" which marked Tony Joe White's stunning return to form after a difficult 1980s period.

You'll recognise the wonderful Steamy Windows (covered by good friend Tina Turner with TJW backing her) but the awesome opening track Tunica Motel which tells of Tony Joe's return to his blues roots sets the stage for the whole album. Tunica Motel has it all - strong hooks and TJW's strong songwriting which starts as a song about getting away from it all, and becomes, gradually, a gut-spilling account. "I'm so tired of fighting with myself..." confesses TJW. Later, when he's contemplating his musical direction, he "sees the ghost of Robert Johnson" and for me the line brings an involunatary tingle down my spine every time I hear it, which is often. Tony Joe is Back! On this album he reintroduces us to his warm Stratocaster blues in gorgeous tracks: Ain't Going Down This Time and You're Gonna Look in Blues. In some ways these marked a new sound that he'd develop on subsequent albums - moving us closer to his use of Spanish guitar. And while he gives us several top swampy blues workouts on tracks like Biyo Rhythm and Love MD ("I need a love doctor," he wails) Tony Joe White also returns us to the world view he shared in his earlier, still excellent album Home made Iceceam which featured gentle ecological laments in tracks like "Ol mother Earth." Tracks such as the powerful "Other Side" written soon after the massacre of Tiannemen Square display his trademark sense of justice and his feelings towards poverty and racism - and on recent listening I was surprised how the track still resonates strongly in the wake of Katrina. The title track, "Closer To The Truth" is a longer track, less overt in its politics and anthem-like in its arrangement: a reflection on a world gone to hell.

When the album appeared in 1991 it was a welcome return for Tony Joe White. It put the uncertainty of the 1980s, and his wrangles with various record companies behind him. Tony Joe White had refound his path of the decent groove and this album marked the new golden age of this superb talent.

 

01.  "Tunica Motel"  (Tony Joe White)  - 4:17

02.  "Ain't Going Down This Time"  (Tony Joe White)  - 5:06

03.  "Steamy Windows"  (Tony Joe White)  - 3:54

04.  "(You're Gonna Look)  Good in Blues"  (Tony Joe White)  - 5:10

05.  "Love M.D."  (Leann White, Tony Joe White)  - 3:34

06.  "The Other Side"  (Tony Joe White)  -  5:50

07.  "Bi-Yo Rhythm"  (Tony Joe White)  - 5:15

08.  "Cool Town Woman"  (Tony Joe White)  - 4:16

09.  "Bare Necessities"  (Tony Joe White)  - 3:47

10.  "Undercover Agent for the Blues"  (Leann White, Tony Joe White)  - 4:44

11.  "Main Squeeze"  (Tony Joe White)  - 4:16

12.  "Closer to the Truth"  (Leann White, Tony Joe White)  - 6:33)

Released:  1991

Recorded at:  Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, Alabama

Genre:  Swamp Rock, Blues, Soul

Length:  58:03

Label:  Remark (U.S.), Festival (Aus/N.Z.)

Producer:  Tony Joe White

Mixing:  Chris Lord-Alge

Engineering:  Steve Melton

Personnel

Tony Joe White - Guitars, Harmonica, Whomper, Swamp Box

David Hood - Bass

Roger Hawkins - Drums

Steve Nathan - Keyboards

Spooner Oldham - Wurlitzer piano

Harvey Thompson - Horns

Mickey Buckins - Percussion