Thanks to the friendly people of First Run Pictures in the US I was allowed to go listen to the aged voice Mr Tony Joe White. The godfather of swamp blues, returned to Ghent after two years and once more the place crowded.

Unfortunately we had to miss the fist ten minutes of the gig due to some parking problems but in the case of Tony Joe White this means about one song or half a song.  When “Roosevelt and Ira Lee” started it became clear that the place wasn’t crowed with people only as old a Mr White himself. Although the average age at the gig was clearly above 40, their where some younger fans as well. People who know the music of the man through CD compilations or who picked up his latest effort last summer. “Rainy Night In Georgia” and another great tune from that first album “Polk Salad Annie” quickly followed! The latter is still capable of moving the complete audience but it was also here that we saw the first signs of fatigue! The ending of the song was not exactly as it was mend to be and what followed was more a combination of sounds then a real song!  Mr White was often picking his guitar at moments he wasn’t suppose to and created awkward silences at others.  Never the less after about seventy minutes of swamp blues the band decided to call it a day but the crowd had no intentions to go home. They shouted for over five minutes and simply because there was no other option Tony Joe returned to the stage to do one more tune : “Steamy windows”.  The tune he wrote for Tina Turner in the eighties and who put the lady back in the charts.

About two hours later I left the building without any decent picture (No flash allowed during the show) and a mixed feeling.  I’m still happy that I went to see Mr Tony Joe White but somehow I have to reckon that he wasn’t in his best mood. There where a little bit to many moments where I had the feeling he was doing things while the rest of the band was doing something completely different!  However in general there is no complaining about sound, light or whatever and that is still a good thing. Hopefully he’ll come back in a year or two to show me wrong and in the meantime I’ll spin some records of the man!

Mr Blue Boogie.