White Lie

Tony Joe White's albums from the 1990's are all more stripped down and blues-oriented than his more well-known material from his "Polk Salad Annie"/"Rainy Night In Georgia" heyday. But although blues has been his main idiom for the past decade or so, "Lake Placid Blues" is mainly distinguished by two of the finest rockers of White's career, the title track and "The Beach Life". This set also includes "Let The Healing Begin", which had been covered to fine effect by Joe Cocker, but I like Cocker's version much better. Other highlights include "Louisiana Rain", "Down Again", and "The Guitar Don't Lie". Another fine set by a woefully underappreciated talent.

Artie White serves up another serving of first rate soul-blues on the this 1997 Waldoxy release, Home Tonight. Material or production wise, this is a typical Malaco/Waldoxy set, with a tight band of guitarists, Big Mike Griffin and Williams Andrew Thomas, bassist David Hood, keyboard whiz Clayton Ivey and drummer and co-producer Paul H. Lee. Add the Muscle Shoals Horns on the uptempo soulful opening number, when Artie tells his woman not to worry because "Your Man Is Home Tonight." It's followed by two straight-forward slow blues, "Somebody's Fool," and a terrific new Travis Haddix authored song, "Man of the House," where Artie tells his woman he's in a bad mood this morning and he just doesn't give a damn, with Big Mike taking a nice stinging solo…