passings
Tony Joe White, singer, songwriter, guitar player, harmonica player, July 23, 1943-October 24, 2018
“Rainy Night in Georgia” (T. J. White), live (TV show), London, 2013
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Live, Australia (Sydney), 2008
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Cicely Berry, Royal Shakespeare Company’s voice director, May 17, 1926-October 15, 2018
The Working Shakespeare/Muscularity of Language: Voice and Rhythm (excerpt), 2004
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, outside Chicago (Prairie Path)
white folks got soul, too
(day two)
Tony Joe White & Shelby Lynne, live, Nashville, 2010
“Rainy Night in Georgia” (T. J. White)
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“Can’t Go Back Home” (T. J. White)
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lagniappe
reading table
“Did I forget to mention that when you’re dead
You’re dead a long time.
My uncle, dying, told me this when asked, Why stay here for such suffering.”
—Lucie Brock-Broido, “Currying the Fallow-Colored Horse” (Stay, Illusion)
white folks got soul, too
(day one)
More of Lucinda W.
Lucinda Williams (with Tony Joe White [harmonica, guitar], et al.), “West Memphis” (L. Williams), recording session, 2014
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lagniappe
reading table
Why am I now a walking accident waiting to happen? Why am I more worried about that than whether there’s an afterlife?
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I don’t look in mirrors anymore. It’s cheaper than surgery.
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Bonding heads the list of words I’ve ruled out. Emerson was right—as he was about everything: an infinite remoteness underlies us all. And what’s wrong with that? Remoteness joins us as much as it separates us, but in a way that’s truly mysterious, yet completely adequate for the life ongoing.
—Richard Ford, “I’m Here” (Let Me Be Frank With You)
four takes
“Rainy Night In Georgia” (Tony Joe White, 1962)
Brook Benton, 1970 (Billboard Soul Singles #1, Hot 100 #4)
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
Otis Rush, 1976 (rec. 1971)
Vodpod videos no longer available.(This track’s a mixed bag: he muffs the first line [dropping “the night” after “spend”] and the low notes are a stretch [at least in this key]; but the choruses are terrific, as is the bridge.)
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Conway Twitty with Sam Moore, 1994
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
Tony Joe White, TV broadcast (Netherlands), 2006 (?)
Vodpod videos no longer available.
music clip of the day 