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Smoke from the Chimney

by Tony Joe White

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1.
Smoke from the chimney A little chill in the air The old folks by the fire In their rocking chairs The cotton fields are empty And the garden is gone And smoke from the chimney Says winters coming home And so many things can change while you’re gone Time goes by so fast And they say you can never really go back home Our memories still last And I see their faces A little weathered by the years And I can feel their warm hugs And smile through my tears Some things are special They don’t ever fade away Like smoke from the chimney And dreams of yesterday Some things are special They don’t ever fade away Like smoke from the chimney And dreams of yesterday Like smoke from the chimney And dreams of yesterday
2.
Boot Money 03:27
Workin’ real hard Buck fifty a week Always had a job But I couldn’t find no winning streak No, no Put a little money in my pocket The rest down in my boot I may be a poor man But I always got some loot I got boot money Workin’ real hard Buck fifty a week Always had a job But I couldn’t find no winning streak Put a little money in my pocket The rest down in my boot I may be a poor man But I always got some loot I got boot money
3.
Making love until the sunset turns into morning light Coffee and tortillas in bed for breakfast Sometimes hellos hurt more than goodbyes Del Rio, you’re making me cry Just a shade of grey in a world of black and white Scared to go home But I can’t turn back Sometimes you have to let go Just to keep it alive Del Rio, you’re making me cry Well it’s better to be a loser Than never play the game Cause sometimes all the winner gets is pain Maybe it’s the pain that helps you survive Del Rio, you’re making me cry Sometimes it don’t rain enough To settle the dust But that west Texas rainbow Still reminds me of us Do you remember the day our love almost died Del Rio, you’re making me cry
4.
I’ve always thought a song had all the freedom It can move above where the eagle flies You may never sing it to no one But everybody’s got one inside It might be a rocker Take you where you want to be You may need a slow one That keeps you moving easy, all night long Listen to your song Not a day goes by that I don’t remember The first time I felt love’s tender touch I could hear it playing softly in the background From that moment on, it belonged to us It can make you happy And you dance to it late at night Or it might be a sad That makes you just want to cry, when you’re all alone Listen to your song I’ve had the dark clouds hanging over my head And I drifted on the high river plains Seemed like I could hear it in the distance Then it covered me like a cold sheet of rain And you get so tired of running But it’s harder to be still And you’re losing touch with everything It seems you’ll never find your way back home Listen to your song
5.
Over You 05:28
I started young A long time ago My first taste of love Seven years old I got in a fight And sent home from school Over you And on down through our teens We stayed hand in hand Sharing our dreams We made some plans I took you home to meet the folks They made a big to-do Over you And it seemed like there was nothing in our way Then it all began to change You say it’s just a cloudy day But to me, it feels like rain They hand out your time Give you maybe a year Apologies are made But I can no longer hear it I’m looking for a miracle A small patch of blue Over you They said I stayed With you day and night They said I prayed And never left your side And went off the deep end In that white sterile room Over you And I will always remember Just before you said goodbye When you pulled me close, and whispered No matter where you go, or whatever you do You know that I’ll be watching over you Over you
6.
It was a dark stormy night And the rain beat on the tin roof It was a dark stormy night And the rain beat on the tin roof We were telling scary stories And the haint was on the loose It was cold outside We moved closer to the fire The wind was howling outside We moved closer to the fire And I heard somebody whisper Gonna be a real scary night There was one about The Monkey’s Paw And Rawhead-and-Bloody-Bones Then someone had the nerve to tell About the old hag in the swamp Oh a dark stormy night And the rain beat on the tin roof We were telling scary stories And the haint was on the loose There came a scratching at the door And a tapping on the window pane A scratching on the door And a tapping on the window pane And I heard somebody whisper Please don’t tell that one again
7.
Bubba Jones 04:26
Bubba Jones was a good ‘ole boy Lived back in the woods Drove a 4-wheel drive pickup Kept it running good Had a little ‘ole 5-horse Mercury The thing was bad to smoke Spent his spare time fishing In a 10-foot aluminum boat Cause there was a lot of money to be had For the man who caught the world record large-mouth bass Bubba had a dream one night Everything seemed surreal He caught a bass that weighed 25 pounds, on a Zebco spinning reel He was getting anxious But he waited till the moon was right He loaded up his truck and boat Headed out before daylight He stopped for bologna and crackers, and a little gas And he was off to catch a world record large-mouth bass He had a small fortune in plastic worms, auto-fishing lures He’s throwing them hard, and throwing them long Nothing was doin’ no good Then he looked inside his tackle box Seen a lure his grandpa made He tied it on and he let it go Over in a cyprus shade He let it sit real still, wiggled it kinda slow Then it seemed like the whole lake exploded And it shook him down to his toes Bubba said mmm, believe I got something here that might last It just might be the world record large-mouth bass But he knew that he was in trouble Knew it was out of hand When it almost jerked him out of his boat That’s when he swallowed his Redman And that ‘ole bass came up on top of the water Started dancing on his tail And it sounded something like Bubba, Bubba, Bubba, Bubba, Bubba Well it broke his line and blew his mind Then he started to shake But he finally got ahold of himself Had a little Gatorade Bubba was down and out, but he had class When he shook his fist and said I’ll be back for the world record large-mouth bass Bubba, Bubba, Bubba, Bubba, Bubba
8.
The fire came down from the mountain The people watched their village go up in flames And the rain never came Does anyone know, someone is crying Is there no concern There’s so many facing the night, without shelter And there’s nothing left to burn Daylight falls on the desert The stallion is running with a herd And the birds, circle above Does anyone know, someone is crying The men are loading their guns And the shots keep ringing out, like thunder And there’s nowhere left to run The sun is falling in the ocean Turning the sand into pearls And the girl watches alone No one knows she is crying The salt mixes with her tears She turns away and moves into the sunset She has walked these shores for years Does anyone know, someone is crying The salt mixes with her tears She turns away and moves into the sunset She has walked these shores for years
9.
Billy 04:51
Billy We’ve come a long ways together And through it all You’ve been just like a brother to me Billy We’ve had our shares of ups and downs Froze our tails, sleeping on the ground And the jobs were few, and far between We’ve been knockin round together so long Singing the same old songs Been out in the rain so long, I swear, we’re shrinking Billy Lately I have done some thinking And when I look back on our lives We sure had ourselves a time But you know It’s been a wild world we traveled And it’s starting to unravel We leave so many loose ends behind We’ve been bucked off and kicked so many times And the ground just keeps getting harder Billy you know well as I, we ain’t gettin no younger Billy Another summer’s come and gone Now with winter comin on I know we planned on heading south But you know I’ve thought about it several days And these words I’m about to say They don’t taste good in my mouth But there’s someone I left back home And Lord, if she’ll still have me Guess I’ll be saying so long You go on, without me Ain’t no easy way of saying goodbye So be sure to tell ‘em all down in Texas, I said “Hi”

about

An unforeseen album more than a decade in the making, Smoke From the Chimney offers nine previously unknown home recordings by the legendary songwriter Tony Joe White. Discovered after his death, these unadorned voice/guitar demos have been transformed by producer Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys) and Nashville’s most seasoned studio players, in service to White’s eclectic style.

“It’s tough to put Tony Joe into a genre and always has been,” says Jody White, his son and longtime manager. “But, Dan took some of the songs I felt were the most difficult to fit in any genre and built them into amazing, amazing tracks.”

Listening to Smoke From the Chimney as a whole, the result is stunning. Not only are these songs magnificently written, the rich layers of production harken back to the albums he recorded in the late ’60s and early ‘70s in Nashville and Muscle Shoals, just as he was emerging as an internationally recognized songwriter and recording artist.

The imagery and character development in narratives like “Over You” and “Billy” are especially staggering when you consider they are purely fiction. Meanwhile, “Scary Stories” and “Bubba Jones” will satisfy fans of the swamp rock side of Tony Joe’s discography, even as the pulsating “Listen to Your Song” stands out as a modern message of empowerment.

“These songs feel like a collection to me and they all seem to work together, in a weird way, even though they’re so different,” says Auerbach, who is releasing the album on his Easy Eye Sound label. “There’s some heartbreaking ballads and some really raunchy carnal blues. But it all works together like scenes of a movie.”

Across five decades as a performer and storyteller, Tony Joe White left an indelible mark on American music. His catalog offers indisputable classics such as “Polk Salad Annie” and “Rainy Night in Georgia,” and his songs have been recorded by Ray Charles, Kenny Chesney, Waylon Jennings, Tim McGraw, Willie Nelson, Elvis Presley, Dusty Springfield, and Tina Turner.

In the last 10 to 15 years of his life, Tony Joe would preserve new compositions or revisit older tracks in his home studio with only a guitar (usually his Stratocaster) and that inimitable voice. Most of that material would ultimately wind up on his late-career albums. But when an unproven song didn’t make the cut for a release, or if he couldn’t get another artist interested, the song stayed right where it was, as Tony Joe moved on to other things. This dismissal was not a reflection of the song’s quality; in fact, it meant quite the opposite, as he would only consider pitching his best material.

After his father’s death in 2018, Jody started transferring those multitrack home recordings to digital files. Looking back on the moment he unearthed the demo of “Smoke From the Chimney,” he recalls a mix of happiness, gratification, and shock. As he continued to find other songs that didn’t make an album, he moved the material into a separate folder. Within a year, those select recordings would evolve into Smoke From the Chimney.

Jody says that even in those basic tracks, that definitive Tony Joe White groove instantly stood out. “He always finds a tempo and a pocket that is exactly right. And it’s a little bit different than anybody else would choose themselves,” he says.

On the songs “Del Rio You’re Making Me Cry” and “Boot Money,” that groove allows the storyline to unfold at precisely the right pace, ensuring that the listener doesn’t miss the West Texas rainbow or the end-of-the-work-week reward. Drawing from the natural landscape, the dramatic visuals of “Someone Is Crying” call to mind the opening moments of an epic film, or perhaps the point of no return. In contrast, the wistful title track simply wouldn’t capture such intimacy at any other tempo.

Ever since meeting Tony Joe backstage at an Australian music festival in 2009, Auerbach sought to make a record with him. For nearly a decade, Jody tried to line up session time for them but Tony Joe demurred. “For one reason or another, my Dad would never just want to go into a studio and write with somebody, or go work with somebody,” Jody says. “He liked to do it at his place, and his way, and it turned out how it turned out, you know what I mean? So, this album really all worked out perfectly. He was making these tracks for Dan all along, but we just didn’t know it.”

Auerbach agrees. “Jody and I had been talking about this record for so long, and it didn’t happen for a reason,” he says. “It’s because it wasn’t supposed to happen. I was in a nervous cast of characters until the last few years, and if you’d given it to me any earlier, it wouldn’t have been right. I felt like all these people on the record were the right people and they laid in there behind Tony Joe. It felt really magical when we were making it happen.”

While recovering these recordings, Jody encountered an envelope of vintage photographs of Tony Joe White in his prime, taken during some downtime at his Nashville-area farm. Auerbach opted to hang those pictures in the studio as the session players and special guests like Marcus King built around the guitar-vocal demos. There was no speeding up or slowing down the source material, nor was there any vocal manipulation. When Auerbach realized that Tony Joe didn’t have any treble in his voice, he arranged the songs with a darker approach, one that suits the mood of these nine songs.

Jody believes that his father would love the way Smoke From the Chimney turned out. “I feel like it’s validation that Tony Joe was one of the greatest of all time,” he says. “That he could make something so potent, even so late in life, is something that not many people can do. I think it’s going to make people who loved him already love him even more.”

credits

released May 7, 2021

Produced by Dan Auerbach
Recorded and Engineered by M. Allen Parker at Easy Eye Sound
Vocal Engineering by Ryan McFadden
Additional Engineering by Caleb VanBuskirk and Trey Keller
Assistant Engineering by Michael Deano and Mickey Smay
Mixed by M. Allen Parker and Dan Auerbach at Easy Eye Sound
Mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound, Nashville, TN
Executive Producer: Jody White

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Tony Joe White Nashville, Tennessee

Known for popularizing swamp music, Tony Joe White wrote gems like “Polk Salad Annie” and “Rainy Night in Georgia,” and has had his songs performed by Elvis, Ray Charles, and Tina Turner. In 2014, White was profiled in the Nashville episode of HBO’s Sonic Highways and performed “Polk Salad Annie” with the Foo Fighters of The Last Show with David Letterman. ... more

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