Years before Beyoncé, Swamp Dogg played black country music. Now he’s back with ‘Blackgrass’

When Beyoncé released her album cowboy Carter in late March, black country music became a topic of attention. Even though Beyoncé tried to turn things around by saying this was Beyoncé’s album “rooted in country,” the conversation continued.

For Swamp Dogg, black country music is nothing new. The 81-year-old singer-songwriter-musician was born Jerry Williams Jr. has been following country music for decades.

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In “Synthetic Mind”, a song (later covered by Jimmy Cliff) from Williams’s debut as Swamp Dogg, the 1970 classic Complete destruction of your mindSwamp sings, “Hey man, I come from the Bayou / Where the wild animals run free / You can say I’m a country bumpkin.”

Then there’s “She’s All I Got”, a song Swamp Dogg co-wrote with Gary U.S. Bonds. Not only was it a top 10 R&B hit for Freddie North in 1971, but it was also a No. 2 country hit that same year for Johnny Paycheck. There is also a version sung by Tanya Tucker, titled “He’s All I Got”, on her 1972 album. plain dawn. More than 20 years later, Tracy Byrd had a No. 4 country hit in 1997 titled “Don’t Take Her She’s All I Got.” Ultimately, Swamp Dogg reclaimed the song with his own version on his 2020 album, Sorry you can’t do it.

Before that, 2014 saw the launch of Swamp Dogg’s Don’t Give Up on Me: The Lost Home Album.

Following his foray into synthesized vocals explored on his 2018 album, Love, Loss and Auto-Tunewith the year 2022 I need a job…So I can buy more Auto-TuneSwamp has returned to his country roots with his new album, Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th St.his first for Oh Boy Records, the record label founded by the late John Prine.

As for the renewed interest in Black country music artists, Swamp Dogg says, “I think it’s overdue because most of us in the South have been exposed to country music,” he reasoned. And long before that, the roots of country music came from Africa. “The black people brought the banjo here, but every time the black people used to hear the banjo, they made fun of it.”

ABOVE black grass, Swamp Dogg is instead having fun with the banjo. It’s the first thing you hear on the album’s opening track, the silly “Mess Under That Dress.”

Recorded at the Sound Emporium in Nashville, black grass includes appearances from singers Margo Price and Jenny Lewis, as well as Cactus Blossoms, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver and guitarist Vernon Reed of Living Color.

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Nashville session frontmen Noam Pikelny, Sierra Hull, Jerry Douglas, Chris Scruggs, Billy Contreras and Kenny Vaughan supported Dogg on 12 of the album’s tracks.

black grass comes as a pivotal point for Swamp Dogg. He is the subject of a new documentary, Swamp Dogg is painting his poolscreened to rave reviews at SXSW in Austin and the recent Don’t Knock the Rock Film Festival in Los Angeles.

The film chronicles Swamp’s career from his early years as Little Jerry Williams to his current role as a cutting-edge, genre-bending elder statesman. It also mentions his collaborators, friends and housemates Moogstar and the late Guitar Shorty. I knew them all as neighbors because they lived on the same street as me in the Los Angeles suburb of Porter Ranch.

During my most recent visit to Swamp’s house, he was juggling house guests, so we moved to his bedroom for the interview. It’s 3 p.m., but Swamp is still wearing striped pajamas and a black robe emblazoned with his stage name.

Swamp says it’s “weird” to see his life represented on the big screen in a documentary, but he’s excited about the response to the film so far, which is currently in production. sell to distributors.

“All the previews — and there are about six or seven right now — are sold out,” he said. “They have to rerun [in some cities] because those can’t get in the first time. We were just invited to the Toronto Film Festival.”

The film includes scenes shot at Swamp’s 80th birthday party. Now he is about to celebrate his 82nd birthday in July.

“I have to watch how I dance on stage because I have balance problems,” he admitted. “If I fall or hit something– because I can’t judge, it’ll be over, it’ll be too late.”

However, he did not let age stop him. “Growing old is like keeping a car,” he said. “You have to go; you know. Don’t be surprised when you walk out, and it won’t start. Don’t waste your time. Just pick up the phone, call AAA and get… the same thing.” like when you wake up in the morning. ‘Oh my God, I don’t feel well.’ You know, put some absorbent on there, go see a doctor, do something but do it right.

As Swamp points out, time may be on his side. His mother, Vera Lee, lived until the age of 93 before passing away a few years ago, and almost until the end, she served as Swamp’s opening act. “She traveled with me for three or four years,” he said.

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“My family, most of them lived to be 103, 104, something like that–,” he added.

John Prine, another famous Swamp collaborator, died in April 2020, but not before he sang on “Please Let Me Turn Around,” a duet on the 2020 album by Swamp Sorry you can’t do it. Swamp famously covered Prine’s song “Sam Stone” on his 1972 album Cuffed, collared and tagged. Perhaps more importantly, Swamp signed Prine to Atlantic Records, while he was working as an A&R executive.

“I was the first Black in-house A&R person they hired,” he said. “It didn’t take me long to find out. They don’t have a Black quota.”

As seen in Swamp Dogg is painting his poolHis history is deep and wide-ranging as an artist, songwriter, artist, producer and record label head spanning decades and genres.

In fact, he’s probably the only person on the planet to have gold and platinum record awards from Johnny Paycheck, Tracy Byrd, Kid Rock (before he joined MAGA), and the late DMX shown on his joining line (the latter two sampled his resume).

Swamp is busy and has to take work calls, but before he heads out the door to walk home, we have to ask, where did he get the idea to paint his pool? (We won’t spoil the surprise and reveal what’s at the bottom of the swampy lake.)

“A friend of mine in Philadelphia, I went to his house and he had a swimming pool and he had his picture painted on the bottom,” he recalls. “I’ve never seen a– like that, except I think at Hank Snow’s house. He has a guitar-shaped swimming pool. I like it and I want my picture in it, but I don’t know I what do you want.” I don’t know who I can find to draw it,” he added.

“But the other thing is that Ryan has a lot of connections, a lot of connections,” he says of Ryan Olson, a member of the band Poliça who has produced Swamp’s three recent albums, including black grassand co-director Swamp Dogg is painting his pool.

“That’s why I followed a lot of the things– that he suggested, because so far almost everything has worked,” he paused. “So, you know, for God’s sake, don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”

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