A phenomenal guitarist, a singer with a warm, soulful voice, a solid songwriter, and a dynamic showman – despite these assets, bluesman Joe Louis Walker still seems to fly under the mainstream music fan’s radar. ‘Tis a shame, too, ‘cause Walker possesses credentials that would satisfy and pacify any non-believer that might question his pedigree (or his sincerity), and he has the musical chops to backstop any argument.
Walker has performed for paupers and presidents; held his ground on stages around the world alongside larger-than-life talents like Jimi Hendrix, John Lee Hooker, Michael Bloomfield, and B.B. King; and he has a vast musical experience that runs the gamut from psychedelic rock and gospel to soul and the blues. He’s been chosen by folks like Bonnie Raitt, Ike Turner, Taj Mahal, and Branford Marsalis to back their play in the studio. In other words, you can’t deny that this is one artist that walks the walk...
Joe Louis Walker’s Witness To the Blues
Witness To the Blues is Walker’s latest, a stunning collection of rambling soul, bluesy guitar, big band blues, and rambunctious R&B. Produced with a deft hand by six-string wizard Duke Robillard – who knows his own way around a fretboard – the collaboration between two accomplished musicians results in near-flawless performances on half-a-dozen Walker originals and a handful of choice covers. Walker’s studio band includes top-notch musicians from the blues and jazz worlds, talents like keyboardist Bruce Katz, saxman Doug James, and drummer Mark Teixeira; Robillard even drops his axe in the groove on a number of songs.
Witness To the Blues is bursting at the seams with great songs and enthusiastic performances. For instance, “Midnight Train” is a jumpin’, jivin’ party on the rails, the band laying down a locomotive beat while Walker adds coal to the fire with his imaginative guitarplay, which flays back-and-forth between Texas electric-blues and Scotty Moore-styled roots-rockabilly. A duet with the incredible Shemekia Copeland, “Lover’s Holiday,” is a soulful romp reminiscent of the best early ‘70s R&B, with keyboardist Katz playing on the Booker T edge while Walker and Copeland’s soaring voices wrap around your eardrums like sugar-n-spice.
The traditional blues-blast “Rollin’ & Tumblin’” is a swinging, echo-laden rocker with haunting, swampadelic guitar and New Orleans-style piano-pounding. “Keep On Believin’” is a perfect example of old-school Stax soul, delivered with gospel fervor and graced with butterfly-fretwork, magnificent B3 organ fills, and pleading vocal harmonies. Another trad cut, “Sugar Mama,” is lifted by Katz’s barrelhouse piano runs, with Robillard’s elegant, jazzy rhythm guitar laying in the cut behind Walker’s raw, ragged solos and Sonny Boy-styled blasts of mouth harp.
The Reverend’s Bottom Line
This isn’t music to change the world, but rather tones to sooth your soul. Witness To the Blues revels in the sheer joy that Joe Louis Walker and his kindred spirits achieve by playing the music they love. It’s contagious, and just one spin of Witness To the Blues will have you hooked as well. (Stony Plain Records, released 2008)
With the vast majority of musicians, by the time they get a couple of decades under their belt and two dozen albums into a career – if they're talented, driven, and lucky enough to get that far – the artist begins to run out of gas, creatively, struggling to find their muse. As for blues guitarist Joe Louis Walker, not only is he finding new ways of expressing himself nearly 30 years after the release of his debut album, both lyrically and musically Hornet's Nest sounds like Walker has a full tank of gas and he's ready to roll!
Following up on his acclaimed 2012 album Hellfire, Walker returned to Nashville, the new blues Mecca, to once again record with talented producer, musician, and songwriter Tom Hambridge (Buddy Guy, James Cotton). Working with the same firecracker studio band that helped make Hellfire such an unqualified success – guitarist Rob McNelley, bassist Tommy MacDonald, and keyboardist Reese Wynans, with Hambridge on drums – Walker spanks the amps on a dozen rock-solid performances, including nine original songs that run the gamut from old-school blues to British blues-rock, and even a fine gospel moment.
Joe Louis Walker's Hornet's Nest
Much as he did with Hellfire, Walker cranks up the voltage from the first note, opening the album with the title track, as greasy and satisfying a slab o' blues back-bacon that will ever tickle your musical palate. Stinging fretwork and bombastic rhythms lay the foundation for a blistering performance. The song is, at its core, a fresh take on the old blues trope of love and jealously, only writ large with monster riffs and heavy instrumentation. Walker and his co-writers spin some clever metaphors within their lyrics, but what really makes it work are Walker's nasty vocals and nastier git-licks, as brutal an assault on the blues as you'll hear, full of spit and venom and raw emotion. It's a real kick-in-the-pants-seat of an album opener, so what's an artist to do for an encore?
How about "All I Wanted To Do," a complete change of direction stylistically and every bit as appealing to the ears as the title track. More pop-oriented in tone, Walker's brightly-hued vocals are no less imbued with emotion, the singer channeling heartbreak here rather than anger, his vox crossing Prince with Bobby "Blue" Bland to great effect, embellishing the lyrics with a melodic guitar solo full of tone and imagination that rides smoothly atop the rollicking brassy licks of the horn section. "As The Sun Goes Down" changes the mood once again; a more traditional, mid-tempo blues tune with a few swampy licks thrown in for good measure, Walker's tear-jerk vocals are enhanced by the crying notes he coaxes out of his instrument. Every bit of the song's power comes from the mournful fretwork, Walker wringing as much blood, sweat, and tears out of his stick as any great blues guitarist you'd care to name.
Ride On, Baby
Walker's ear for fresh music is simply invigorating, and he puts it to good use on a playful cover of Carl Perkins' "Don't Let Go." A Top 20 hit for the great Isaac Hayes back in 1980, Walker's version straddles the common ground between Perkins' rockabilly-tinged original and Hayes funkier R&B cover. The swinging rockabilly rhythm is evident here, and Walker's surprisingly spry vocals capture perfectly Perkins' swagger and charisma, but he dirties it up a bit with an undeniable R&B groove driven by Wynans' chiming keyboards and inspired backing vocals. Hambridge's "Ramblin' Soul" is an entirely different creature, a big-boned blues-rock monolith that wouldn't have sounded out of place on an old Savoy Brown album. Walker's razor-sharp guitar cuts a wide swath through the arrangement while the stomp 'n' stammer rhythms hit your ears like a mortar blast. The song jams on for nearly six minutes, guitars screaming and cymbals crashing in the creation of a musically cathartic moment.
Following "Ramblin' Soul," Walker's take on the Rolling Stones "Ride On, Baby" is so doggone full of enchantment and wide-eyed innocence that it's just a pure joy to listen to over and over again. Digging the often-overlooked Jagger/Richards composition up from 1967's Flowers album, Walker dusts off the psychedelic-pop sheen yet still retains the song's mid-1960s baroque Stones sound. It's an uplifting moment devoid of guitar pyrotechnics and studio gimmickry, just a heck of a lot of fun to hear and, I presume, to have recorded in the first place, especially the cheeky Otis Day & the Knights outro.
Ditto for the raucous "Soul City, which evinces a stone cold Sly & the Family Stone vibe while name-checking various locales like Chicago, Detroit, and even Oslo, Norway, among others. The song is built on a descending bass riff like a vintage Sly Stone jam, with plenty of chaotic instrumentation and swirling guitars building a lively soul party. Hornet's Nest closes out with the gospel-tinged "Keep The Faith," Walker's reverent vocals displaying a different side to his talents, the singer sounding a lot like Bobby Womack in delivering an incredibly powerful yet nuanced performance that harkens back to his years with the Spiritual Corinthians Gospel Quartet during the 1980s. The song is an inspiring nod to the artist's faith as well as an elegant note to close the album out on.
The Reverend's Bottom Line
Joe Louis Walker has been playing professionally since he was a teenager, nearly 50 years now, and he's literally shared a stage and rubbed shoulders with nearly every American and British blues musician of note, from John Lee Hooker and John Mayall to Muddy Waters, Jimi Hendrix, and Michael Bloomfield. Few would blame Walker if he wanted to call in a few of his markers and coast on his accomplishments. Hornet's Nest shows that there's plenty of life left in the fiery bluesman yet, Walker not one to rest on his laurels when there's music to be made. Hornet's Nest is the guitarist's strongest, diverse, and most entertaining album to date and, after a couple dozen acclaimed previous efforts, that's no mere hyperbole... (Alligator Records, released February 23, 2014)
Wow, things have gone to hell in a hand basket the last couple of months with this damn coronavirus thing...restaurants and bars have been closed, tours cancelled and clubs shut down, even the major labels' distribution has taken a hit as vinyl-pressing plants have closed with orders sitting on the books and record stores temporarily (or permanently) closed. There's a bunch of great music scheduled for June release, though, so as the country attempts to re-open, there will be new music to help get us through the struggle.
If you're boycotting Amazon and don't have an indie record store close by, may we suggest shopping with our friends at Grimey's Music in Nashville? They have a great selection of vinyl available by mail order, offer quick service, and if you don't see what you want on their website, check out their Discogs shop!
Release dates are probably gonna change and nobody tells me when they do. If
you’re interesting in buying an album, just hit the ‘Buy!’ link to
get it from Amazon.com...it’s just that damn easy! Your purchase puts
valuable ‘store credit’ in the Reverend’s pocket that he’ll use to buy
more music to write about in a never-ending loop of rock ‘n’ roll
ecstasy!
JUNE 5
The Choir - Last Call: Live At the Music Box [two-CD set] BUY!
Dion - Blues With Friends BUY!
Dr. John - Ske Dat De Dat: The Spirit of Satch [vinyl reissue] BUY!
No Age - Goons Be Gone BUY!
Run the Jewels - RTJ4 BUY!
Sonic Boom - All Things Being Equal BUY!
Joe Louis Walker - Blues Comin' On BUY!
JUNE 12
Built To Spill - Built To Spill Plays the Songs of Daniel Johnston BUY!
Larkin Poe - Self Made Man BUY!
Paul Weller - On SunsetBUY!
JUNE 19
Blues Pills - Holy Moly! BUY!
Grayson Capps - South Front Street: A Retrospective 1997-2019 BUY!
Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways BUY!
Shirley Kings - Blues For A King BUY!
Lamb of God - Lamb of God BUY!
Brian Wilson & Van Dyke Parks - Orange Crate Art [25th anniversary reissue] BUY!
Neil Young - Homegrown (long-lost 1975 LP) BUY!
JUNE 26
Nick D’Virgilio - Invisible BUY!
Fanny - Fanny [vinyl reissue] BUY!
HAIM - Women In Music, Pt. III BUY!
Will Hoge - Tiny Little Movies BUY!
Kansas - The Absence of Presence BUY!
Corb Lund - Agricultural Tragic BUY!
The Turtles - Battle of the Bands [vinyl reissue] BUY!
The Turtles - Happy Together [vinyl reissue] BUY!
The Turtles - It Ain't Me Babe [vinyl reissue] BUY!
The Turtles - Turtle Soup [vinyl reissue] BUY!
The Turtles - Wooden Head [vinyl reissue] BUY!
The Turtles - You Baby [vinyl reissue] BUY! Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention - The Mothers 1970 [4-CD box set] BUY!
Album of the Month: There's a lot of great music that might be coming out this month (the jury's still out on the label's ability to distribute new product), but if I were to choose one of the month's albums to crow about, it would be rock 'n' roll legend Dion's Blues With Friends. Recorded with a veritable "who's who' of blues and rock legends like Joe Bonamassa, Billy Gibbons, Sonny Landreth, Bruce Springsteen & Little Steve, Joe Louis Walker, and more this promises to be one of the better blues discs of 2020...
April showers are history, and May is gonna break the bank with more hot new music than you can shake your debit card at! Rockers can rejoice with albums by Bad Religion, Dream Syndicate, Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul, Sammy Hagar, Sebadoh, and a whole lot more. Fans of blues, soul, and R&B music will find a lot to like with new music by talents like Mavis Staples, Southern Avenue, the Cash Box Kings, Jimmie Vaughan, Duke Robillard, and Albert Castiglia as well as a red-hot live set by Joe Louis Walker and an archive release by Johnny Shines...and don't forget to check out the debut album from blues newcomer Christone "Kingfish" Ingram!
Like reggae/dub? Then check out the Adrian Sherwood-produced LP by the legendary Lee "Scratch" Perry and a new set from Steel Pulse. Throw in archival releases like a deluxe multi-disc version of British rock legends Be-Bop Deluxe's Futurama album, a multi-platter Traffic vinyl box set, and more affordable releases by Lee Moses and D.O.A. and May is going to be a great month for music lovers!
If you’re interesting in buying an album, just hit the ‘Buy!’ link to get it from
Amazon.com...it’s just that damn easy! Your purchase puts valuable ‘store credit’ in the
Reverend’s pocket that he’ll use to buy more music to write about in a
never-ending loop of rock ‘n’ roll ecstasy!
MAY 3
Bad Religion - Age of Unreason BUY!
Be-Bop Deluxe - Futurama [deluxe box set] BUY!
Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes - End of Suffering BUY!
D.O.A. - 1978 [singles & unreleased tracks] BUY!
Dream Syndicate - These Times BUY!
Editors - The Blanck Mass Sessions BUY!
L7 - Scatter the Rats BUY!
Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul - Summer of Sorcery BUY!
Carla Olson & Todd Wolfe - The Hidden Hills Sessions BUY!
Johnny Shines - The Blues Came Falling Down, Live 1973 BUY!
Vampire Weekend - Father of the Bride BUY!
MAY 17
Cash Box Kings - Hail To the Kings! BUY!
Paul Gilbert - Behold Electric Guitar BUY!
Imperial Wax - Gatswerk Saboteurs BUY!
Interpol - A Fine Mess EPBUY!
Christone "Kingfish" Ingram - Kingfish BUY!
The National - I Am Easy To Find BUY!
Duke Robillard - Ear Worms BUY!
Steel Pulse - Mass Manipulation BUY!
Traffic - The Studio Albums 1967-1974 [vinyl box set] BUY!
Jimmie Vaughan - Baby, Please Come Home BUY!
MAY 24
Black Mountain - Destroyer BUY!
Albert Castiglia - Masterpiece
Adam Holt - Kind of Blues
Morrissey - California Son BUY!
Lee Moses - How Much Longer Must I Wait? Singles & Rarities 1965-1972 BUY!
Sebadoh - Act Surprised BUY!
MAY 31
Duff McKagan - Tenderness [w/Shooter Jennings] BUY!
Lee "Scratch" Perry - Rainford [produced by Adrian Sherwood] BUY!
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets - And Now For the WhatchamacalitBUY!
Soundwalk Collective & Patti Smith - The Peyote Dance BUY!
Album of the Month: There can only be one "album of the month," and while May offers up lots of choices for this honor, the Rev has to go with Little Steven's Summer of Sorcery. It's the E Street legend's first collection of new music in two decades. Summer of Sorcery features a dozen Van Zandt originals, including one song revisited from his Revolution album, an outtake from the Lilyhammer score, and ten new songs written during Little Steven's Soulfire tour. Van Zandt was joined in the studio by his road-tested touring band and you can get a taste of Summer of Sorcery via the videos below...
