Years Before Beyoncé, Swamp Dogg Was Playing Black Country Music. Now He's Back With 'Blackgrass'

When Beyoncé released her album Cowboy Carter in late March, Black country music became the topic du jour. Though Beyoncé attempted to dial things back by saying it's a Beyoncé album "rooted in country," the talk continued.

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

In "Synthetic Mind," a song (later covered by Jimmy Cliff) from Williams' debut as Swamp Dogg, 1970's classic Total Destruction of Your Mind, Swamp sings, "Hey you, I'm up from the Bayou / Where wildlife runs free / You could say that I'm country."

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 a No. 2 country hit that same year for Johnny Paycheck. There was also a version sung by Tanya Tucker, titled "He's All I Got," that was included on her 1972 album Delta Dawn. More than 20 years later, Tracy Byrd had a No. 4 country hit in 1997 with the retitled "Don't Take Her She's All I Got." Eventually, Swamp Dogg reclaimed the song with his own version on his 2020 album, Sorry You Couldn't Make It.

Before that, 2014 saw the release of Swamp Dogg's Don't Give Up on Me: The Lost Country Album.

After his encore foray into the synthesized vocals explored on his 2018 album, Love, Loss, and Auto-Tune, with 2022's I Need a Job...So I Can Buy More Auto-Tune, Swamp has returned to his country roots with his new album, Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th St., his first for Oh Boy Records, the label founded by the late John Prine.

As for the renewed interest in Black country artists, Swamp Dogg says, "I think it's overdue because most of us from the South were exposed to country music," he reasons. And long before that, the roots of country music came from Africa. "Black people brought the banjo over here, but every time Black people usually hear banjo, they're making fun of it."

On Blackgrass, Swamp Dogg is instead having fun with banjo. It's the first thing you hear on the album's opening track, the bawdy "Mess Under That Dress."

Recorded at Nashville's Sound Emporium, Blackgrass includes guest appearances by singers Margo Price and Jenny Lewis, as well as the Cactus Blossoms, Bon Iver's Justin Vernon and Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reed.

Nashville session aces Noam Pikelny, Sierra Hull, Jerry Douglas, Chris Scruggs, Billy Contreras, and Kenny Vaughan back the Dogg on the album's 12 tracks.

Blackgrass comes as a pivotal point for Swamp Dogg. He's the subject of a new documentary, Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted, which screened to rave reviews as 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 an out there, cutting-edge, genre-crossing elder statesman. It also looks at his collaborators, friends and housemates Moogstar and the late Guitar Shorty. I know them all as neighbors since they live down my street in the Los Angeles suburb of Porter Ranch.

During my latest visit to Swamp's house, he's juggling house guests, so we move to his bedroom for the interview. It's 3 p.m., but Swamp is still dressed in striped pajamas and a black robe embossed with his stage name.

Swamp says it's "real weird" to see his life unfold on the big screen in a documentary, but he's enthused by the response to the film so far, which is currently being shopped to distributors.

"All the previews -- and there's been about six or seven now -- have been sold out," he says. "They had to run it again [in some cities] because of the people that couldn't get in the first time. We've just been invited to the Toronto Film Festival."

The film includes footage shot at Swamp's 80th birthday party. He's now headed to his 82nd birthday in July.

"I have to watch how I dance on stage because I got a balance problem," he admits. "If I fall or bump into some sh-- because I can't judge it, it's over, it's too late."

Still, he's not letting his advancing age hold him back. "Getting old is just like keeping a car," he says. "You just got to go; you know. Don't be surprised when you walk outside, and it don't start. You just don't waste time. Just get on the phone, call AAA and get your sh-- taken care of. That's the same thing when you get up in the morning. 'Oh God, I don't feel well.' You know, put some more Absorbine Jr. on it. Go to the doctor, do something, but get it right. You know, just keep it up."

As Swamp points out, time may be on his side. His mother, Vera Lee, lived until she was 93 before passing a few years ago, and almost right up until the end, she was serving as Swamp's opening act. "She traveled with me for three or four years," he says.

"My family, most of them lived to be like 103, 104, that kind of sh--," he adds.

John Prine, another famed Swamp associate, died in April 2020, but not before he laid down vocals on "Please Let Me Go Round Again," a duet on Swamp's 2020 album Sorry You Couldn't Make It. Swamp famously covered Prine's song "Sam Stone" on his 1972 album Cuffed, Collared & Tagged. Perhaps more importantly, Swamp signed Prine to Atlantic Records, back when he was working as an A&R executive.

"I was the first Black in-house A&R man that they hired," he says. "It didn't take me long to find out. They didn't have their quota of Blacks."

As seen in Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted, his history is deep and wide-ranging with his reach as an artist, songwriter, artist, producer and label head spanning decades and genres.

In fact, he's probably the only person the planet to have gold and platinum record awards from Johnny Paycheck, Tracy Byrd, Kid Rock (before he went MAGA) and the late DMX displayed in his entry way (the latter two sampled his records).

Swamp's busy and taking business calls, but before we head out the door to walk home, we must ask, where'd he get the idea to get his pool painting? (We won't spoil the surprise and reveal what's at the bottom of Swamp's pool.)

"A buddy of mine back in Philadelphia, I went to his house, and he had a pool, and he had his picture painted on the bottom," he recalls. "I hadn't seen no sh-- like that, other than I think at Hank Snow's house. He's got a guitar-shaped pool. I loved it and I wanted my picture in there, but I didn't know what I wanted. I didn't know who I could find to paint it," he adds.

"But that's another thing that Ryan's got a lot of hookups, a lot of hookups," he says of Ryan Olson, a member of the band Poliça, who produced three of Swamp's recent albums, including Blackgrass, and co-directed Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted.

"That's why I go along with a whole lot of sh-- that he suggests, cause so far just about everything worked," he pauses. "So, you know, God damn, don't bite the hand that feeds you."

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