A sad loss to American music earlier this year was J.J. Cale, the famously laid-back Oklahoman, whose style drew on blues, country, rock and jazz. His sound defied categorisation until somebody came up with "Americana" as a catch-all for artists playing roots music, but without allegiance to any particular genre.
Tony Joe White is in many ways Cale's Louisiana counterpart, and from the same generation: White is 70, Cale was 74. A preference for tasteful understatement in their singing and guitar playing links the two men, as does their unpretentious songwriting.
Both musicians also achieved greater recognition through covers of their songs than their own recordings.
Cale's biggest hits were and (both covered by Eric Clapton), and , of which the best known cover version is by Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Cale didn't like to work too hard, but White has been more productive. Elvis Presley's 1969 cover of made his name, and Brook Benton's version of was a Billboard top-10 hit in 1970. Of the many covers of that song, those by Ray Charles and Randy Crawford are arguably the best. White also wrote Tina Turner's 1989 hit .
White's last serious studio album was 2006's , with appearances from Cale and Clapton, along with Mark Knopfler and Michael McDonald.
His latest release, , is a lower-key affair with no guest stars, and sparse instrumentation highlighting his guitar, vocals and harmonica - as the title implies very much the Louisiana "swamp" sound for which he is best known. The songs were mostly cut live, with White singing and playing with the rest of the band.
