Tony Joe White Celebrates 70th B-Day with a New Track "The Gift" via LA Times

I can't believe Tony Joe White, the ol' Swamp Fox, is 70. Wow. But he's not slowing down. In September he is releasing a new CD, Hoodoo, via Yep Roc Records. In honor of his 70th birthday (July 23, 2013), White released a new track "The Gift" from his forthcoming LP.

You can stream "The Gift" via The Los Angeles Times and\or purchase at iTunes.

“The gift is music and songs" White explains. "But it was just too powerful for this boy in the song, so he sat up in an old slave graveyard with a bottle of wine and a guitar.” As the protagonist hangs his head in lamentation, figures walk out of the past and appear before him, led by a mysterious woman. “These figures were Robert Johnson, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and guys from off the plantations, and she was protecting them, because they hadn’t crossed over. They didn’t know how to. But this strange white boy on a tombstone starts singing and playing and singing this tune and…you can hear how it ends in the song, but it gives me chillbumps when I think about it.”