-- This title will ship on or after July 29, 2025 --

Before there was Snoop Dogg there was Swamp Dogg. The original was born Jerry Williams Jr. in Portsmouth, Virginia in 1942. He first won fame as a 12-year old soul singer called Little Jerry–before he later decided, at the end of the 1960s and after several hit records, to create a new identity for making music and mischief.  Thus did Little Jerry become Swamp Dogg—a  legendary singer, songwriter and record producer whose singular voice and ideas have shaped the history not merely of soul music, but of country and hip-hop and a dozen other genres.  He also made history in the music business, early in his career, as the first Black  A&R man at Atlantic Records, where he oversaw music by The Drifters and Gary US Bond–just two of the storied acts whose sounds he’s shaped.  .

But if music is Swamp Dogg’s first love, this fabled man of taste has another one: food.  In 1972, Swamp Dogg proclaimed that he would write a cookbook so transformative that the legacies of culinary giants like Julia Child, Betty Crocker, James Beard, and even Colonel Sanders would pale in comparison. He stated that "It is the book that Hemingway wanted to write and that Agatha Christie couldn’t.”  Now, more than 50 years later,  that book is finally here.

If You Can Kill It I Can Cook It  is a book for those who appreciate recipes seasoned with personality and history, and stories to go with dinner. This is more than a cookbook: it is a biographical artifact and a journey into the mind of a chef who’ll teach you how to make “Baked Beans Bo Diddley”, “James Brown In Flight Chicken” and “Willie Nelson Potatoes Platter”. It is also a glimpse into the savory life of a musical genius, richly illustrated with tales and photos of family, food, music, and business.

As Swamp Dogg says, “This is the book that Hemingway wanted to write, Agatha Christie couldn’t, and Alex Haley didn’t have enough soul for. Now get to cooking!” 

Presented alongside Magnolia Pictures’ feature length documentary Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted, directed by Isaac Gale and Ryan Olson, and the album Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th Street from Oh Boy Records, If You Can Kill It, I Can Cook It resonates with the same fervor as his music, all while satisfying a different sensory palette: taste.

BIO

In 1970 the Southern soul music maverick Jerry Williams, Jr. made the most radical move of his career. Frustrated with music business politics Williams reinvented himself as Swamp Dogg, an irreverent anti-hero smashing the conventions of commercial R&B music. Swamp Dogg’s debut release Total Destruction to Your Mind featured a post-apocalyptic take on the Muscle Shoals’ sound, with lyrics inspired by the revolutionary politics and psychedelic drugs of the late ‘60s. The music on Total Destruction to Your Mind stood worlds apart from the formulaic pop tunes Williams started cutting in 1954 under the name Little Jerry, and Swamp Dogg hasn’t looked back since.

But the music business wasn’t ready for Swamp Dogg, nor was the rest of America. His bizarre album titles and wild cover art turned the average consumer off, while his subversive lyrics earned him a spot on Richard Nixon’s infamous enemies list. Swamp Dogg was not deterred. He seemed to relish operating from the margins of the music business, consequently becoming one of the quintessential outsider figures in American music.

Now, nearly fifty years after his debut release, Swamp Dogg stands on the precipice of another radical reinvention. His latest creation is titled Love, Loss, and Auto-Tune a nine song collection featuring production by Poliça’s Ryan Olson. Love, Loss, and AutoTune finds Swamp Dogg’s bluesy southern soul colliding head-on with 21st Century electronic music production techniques.

[H]  Pioneer Works Press  /  July 29, 2025