Singer-songwriter and guitarist Tony Joe White was best known for writing "Rainy Night in Georgia," made popular in 1970 by Brook Benton.
"I think it was the first time I heard Brook Benton's 'Rainy Night In Georgia,'" Dan Auerbach says during a call from his Nashville studio about discovering Tony Joe White. "I'd heard the song a bunch already, and I just figured it was a Ray Charles song or something. But then I heard Tony Joe's version and everything about it just blew my mind."
White, the southern singer-songwriter who died in 2018, is fresh on Auerbach's mind because the latter recently completed producing an album of never-before-heard songs from the Americana swamp rocker.