EXCLUSIVE: An Expanded Version of Tony Joe White's Overlooked Eighties Album The Real Thang announced with 'Cowboy Singer' co-written with Waylon Jennings

In a month when Charley Crockett and Gavin Adcock are squabbling like school boys over what it means to be an authentic cowboy singer and HARDY and ERNEST are rewriting Bro Country as being akin to the original Outlaw Country movement, it feels particularly poetic that two of country music's greatest genuine innovators and renegades should reappear from beyond the grave to knock all their bloody heads together.

"So you wanna be a cowboy singer and pick them 'ol guitars every night," sings Tony Joe White on the newly unearthed 'Cowboy Singer', written with Waylon Jennings in the 1980s. "Well, if you're ever down around Corpus Christi, Texas, be sure and tell 'em all I said hi / Tell 'em me and ol' Waylon said hi."

Spanning five decades from the late 60s up until his death in 2018, the beloved Louisiana singer-songwriter and guitarist Tony Joe White - a.k.a. “The Swamp Fox” - pushed the boundaries of what country music was expected to be. From the swampy country funk of 'Polk Salad Annie' and dreamy '70s folk of songs like 'Homemade Ice Cream' to dark outlaw country ballads like ' High Sheriff of Calhoun Parrish,' the straight up countrypolitan of 'Rainy Night in Georgia' and Tina Turner's twangy pop smash 'Steamy Windows,' his songs have been cut by everyone from Ray Charles and Kenny Chesney to Tim McGraw, Willie Nelson, Elvis Presley and Dusty Springfield, and in his own studio recordings he never stopped bringing in sounds from the leftfield of country and reimagining country as something entirely unheard of before.

In 2014, when Tony Joe White appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman alongside the Foo Fighters to perform 'Polk Salad Annie,' the TV host famously pointed at White, telling the audience, "Holy cow! ... If I was this guy, you could all kiss my ass. And I mean that."

Originally released back in 1980, at a time when traditional country artists seemed to be struggling to understand where their sound would fit in with the newly polished production of the time, his eight-song collection The Real Thang was only released on vinyl and met with mixed reviews when it came out. Listening to it now, it's odd to think that the album's blend of White's signature swamp rock sound and smooth late 70s disco was so cruelly overlooked, because it feels totally in step with a lot of other things that were happening in country in the early 1980s.

45 years on and it fits perfectly on any playlist of whatever Kenny and Dolly were up to at the time, Glen Campbell's 80s weird country masterpiece Its The World Gone Crazy, Merle Haggard's 'That's the Way Love Goes' or Waylon Jennings' seminal Music Man.

It's Waylon who rides shotgun as The Real Thang is taken once more around the block with White’s estate, helmed by his son, Jody White, announcing a grand unearthing of the album with a deeper dive into what made the era so intriguing, kicking off with the release of the album's first previously unreleased bonus cut, 'Cowboy Singer' co-written with Waylon Jennings.

“The original album included 8 songs from this wildly experimental time in Tony Joe's career,” says Jody. “As I began to explore a re-release of this lost album, I discovered that TJW had written and recorded many more songs during this period of exploration, but most of them had never seen the light of day. They were kept locked away in his large stash of studio reel-to-reels, and nobody was able to listen... until now.”

The new version of The Real Thang is a tale of two albums. The first half is a showcase of White’s singing and songwriting as a country artist and includes several songs he wrote and sang with Waylon Jennings during their time together in the ‘70s. The back half finds White moving into more of the “swamp funk” jam sessions, which became instrumental in his live shows.

“The result,” says Jody, “is eighteen songs that take the listener on a ride from the Texas countryside into the swamps of Louisiana, and a journey through a forgotten time of ‘The Swamp Fox.’”

Waylon Jennings released his own disco country version of the song for his 1983 duets album, Waylon and Company, with Tony Joe White as his duet partner amongst other collabs on the record with Jerry Reed, Willie Nelson, Jessi Colter, Hank Williams Jr. and Mel Tillis, as 'So You Want to Be a Cowboy,' but the newly unearthed Tony Joe White version is a moodier, softer affair as White refines his home baked recipe of swampy country funk and bluesy guitar licks with a pinch of bouncy '80s disco.

"This track was co-written with Waylon Jennings and depicts the story of being on the road as a country singer in the 1970's," says Jody White recalling the poetry of lyrics like "The lines on my face won't tell you where I'm going, but they sure as hell can tell you where I've been" from it. "The song depicts the life of being on the road as a country music superstar. Traveling the country in private jets, meeting new women and living a country singer's life on the road that "can make you rich... or make you poor."

Listen to 'Cowboy Singer' exclusively on Holler below.

Along with this new music announcement, the newly formed Tony Joe White Supply Co. has just released its first beer, aptly named Cowboy Singer. Brewed by Peaceful Side Brewery, the crisp and refreshing international lager is a limited run, so ask your local distributor about a six-pack or two today. For those planning to attend AMERICANAFEST in Nashville on September 9-13, stay tuned to Tony Joe White's socials for information regarding a very special beer tasting and album-listening party.

An expanded reissue of The Real Thang is out on 24 October