"Polk Salad Annie" is a 1968 song written and performed by Tony Joe White.

Traditionally, the term to describe the type of food highlighted in the song is polk or poke salad, a dish of cooked greens made from pokeweed.

Elvis Presley's version from his 1970 live album On Stage also made the song popular.

The song vividly recreates the Southern roots of Tony Joe White's childhood and his music reflects this earthy rural background.

Situated just west of the Mississippi River, it's a land of cottonfields, where pokeweed, or "poke" grows wild, and alligators lurk in moss-covered swamps.

Her mother worked in a chain gang, while her father was lazy and no-count, with a bad back, and her brothers were stealing the watermelons out of the narrator's truck patch.

In a January 17, 2014, interview with music journalist Ray Shasho, White explained the thought process behind the writing of "Polk Salad Annie" and "Rainy Night in Georgia".I heard "Ode to Billie Joe" on the radio and I thought, man, how real, because I am Billie Joe, I know that life.

"[6] In 2014, White performed the song with Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters on Late Show With David Letterman.