Printable page
Email a friendA real blues fan's bluesman
DESPITE the fact that bluesman Joe Louis Walker seems to have been around forever, having released a string of critically acclaimed albums, he has still not achieved the international recognition of his contemporary Robert Cray.
However, as Cray has veered towards mainstream rock appeal, Walker has remained essentially a blues fan's bluesman.
His skills as a singer, songwriter, producer and guitarist - his slide playing is legendary - have endeared him to British blues fans for a quarter of a century, ever since he cut his debut album The Gift back in 1985.
Born in San Francisco on Christmas Day 1949 and now based in Westchester, New York, he was part of the 'Frisco Bay Area blues scene in his early teens, soaking up the sounds of T-Bone Walker and John Lee Hooker and appearing with Steve Miller and Jimi Hendrix.
By the time he was 19, he had built a close friendship with Mike Bloomfield, lead guitarist with The Electric Flag, and was later a sessioner with Al Kooper and Steve Stills.
Bloomfield's tragic early death persuaded Walker to change his life. He enrolled at San Francisco State University, earning music and English degrees and performing regularly with gospel group The Spiritual Corinthians.
In 1985, he returned to the blues, fronting his new band The Bosstalkers, touring the US and Europe and making the first of five albums for the HighTone label, before signing to PolyGram's Verve/Gitanes label, where he recorded another six albums.
Walker is a walking encyclopedia of blues history. At his gigs, he plays in a wide range of styles, from the tough Chicago blues of Elmore James through to 1950s west coast R'n'B.
In fact, one of the few who can match his eclectic taste in music is Duke Robillard, the veteran guitarist who founded Roomful of Blues when he was a teenager and who produced Witness To The Blues, Louis's debut for the Canadian label Stony Plain.
More than half of Witness To The Blues's 11 tracks were self-penned by Walker and the set includes two blues classics - John Lee Hooker's Sugar Mama and Hambone Willie Newbern's Rollin' And Tumblin', which he completely transforms.
Another highlight is a great duet with Shemekia Copeland, daughter of the late bluesman Johnny Copeland, on the Peggy Scott and Jo Jo Benson 1960s classic soul hit Lover's Holiday.
Walker takes the vocals, plays acoustic, electric and slide guitar and adds some harmonica solos as well for good measure, while Robillard himself adds guitar parts on five cuts.
Witness To The Blues is a hard-edged collection that ranges from acoustic blues to rockin' horn-laden 1960s-style R'n'B, which will certainly be high on the list for blues album of the year 2009.
HAVANA SLIM