Jim White - Book of Angels (Official Video)

When we say the words “outer space alt.country,” if Jim White isn’t the first thing that pops into your mind, then here’s something to help you:


It’s the 25th anniversary of Wrong Eyed-Jesus—the début album from that erstwhile druggie, drifting, storytelling, taxi-driving, recovering Pentecostal maverick talent from Pensacola, Florida who took alt country by storm in the ’90s—and so we’re putting it back out into the world in a beautiful new gatefold jacket.

Wrong-Eyed Jesus, or The Mysterious Tale of How I Shouted Wrong-Eyed Jesus!

 revealed Jim to be a spiritual anatomist of the South on par with Flannery O’Connor and Tom Waits. His music was a conduit for all the crazy stories he found himself at the center of—for no good reason other than that the South is a crazy place.


Fans of alt.country called it a masterpiece. Jim found all the attention pretty hysterical:


“For 20 years I’d written these dark little songs,” he said. “Every once in a while I’d play them for someone and they’d shout, ‘Stop! That sucks so bad it makes my ears pop!’ Then a thing called alt country came along and, boom, all of a sudden everyone’s hollering ‘Jim, you’re a friggin’ genius!’ I mean, what happened???”


‘Stop! That sucks so bad it makes my ears pop!’

Twenty-five years after the fact, it’s a lot easier to see what happened. (By the way, if you haven’t seen his BBC documentary, “Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus,” an award-winning road-movie exploring Southern culture, do.)

Jim White in Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus

May “Wrong-Eyed Jesus” give you a shot at redemption.

might remember that Jim’s song “Wordmule” (from this album) was the very last song in the very last episode of that show. Funnily enough, we actually tried at the last minute to take that song off the album—we felt like it didn’t fit. So, we took the title off the back of the jacket, but then we forgot to tell the mastering engineer, and he left it on anyway. The rest, as they say, is history. “Wordmule” still isn’t listed on the back of the jacket, and the song is still a fan favorite.

Jim White Is Still An Alt.Country Maverick, 25 Years Later (Wrong-Eyed Jesus is Back!)