Juke Joint Soul
by Ben the Harpman
Joe Louis Walker returns to Stony Plain for his second release in two years. It’s been a long, hard road to hoe for Walker as he’s seen the ups and downs of paying dues inside and outside of the music business. With this latest serving of an eclectic palette of tunes produced by Duke Robillard, Walker completes what some in the music business call a great comeback to what was once a budding career full of expectation.
Between ranges on guitar-rock pyrotechnic stompers (”I’m Tide”), gospelly minor chord guest collaborations with Kevin Eubanks (”If There’s A Heaven”), musings on an ex-wife (”Black Widow Spider”) and just straight up old fashioned blues either swingin’ or on the back porch. Five of the twelve tracks here are JLW’s originals with Duke Robillard contributing one tune and all the rest being a cornucopia of different styles and artists. Ray Charles and Roy Gaines get nods here.
Real stand out tracks on this album are ready for radio and possibly a BMA nomination for Walker. Those tracks are “Black Widow Spider,” “Tell Me Why,” and the back porch blues of “Send You Back.” Walker has some of Robillard’s long time friends in his backing band for this one. Mark Teixeira, Doug James, Bruce Katz, Carl Querfurth, and East Coast harpsmith Sugar Ray Norcia all display some wonderful work on the album. So let’s look at the package: comeback album of the year, great songwriting, excellent backing band, and some tasteful, soulful guitar playing for both blues and blues-rock fans. Looks like a winner. I bet we’re seeing at least one nod in the BMAs for this one this coming year.
All Music Guide – by J Allen
San Francisco blues guitar king Joe Louis Walker has been purveying his biting brand of West Coast blues since the ’60s, with time off for good behavior (literally — he spent years going “straight” attending school and playing gospel). On Between a Rock and the Blues he manages to keep one foot in the L.A. blues he grew up on (T-Bone Walker, Lowell Fulson, et al.) and the other in a more modern sound, both in his songwriting and his impassioned fretwork. On the likes of “Eyes Like a Cat” and “Way Too Expensive,” Walker’s seasoned band whips up a sassy, swinging, old-school jump blues feel, while “Tell Me Why” leans into a classic-sounding Chicago-style shuffle. Walker’s voice, still lithe and clear at 58, rings out authoritatively over it all, and his concise, stinging guitar makes no apologies for asserting its dominion over all it surveys. An unplugged stab at Delta blues on “Send You Back” feels less convincing, but other cuts, such as album-opening “I’m Tide” [sic] and “If There’s a Heaven” show off a crunchier, grittier, more rock-inflected guitar tone and a compositional sensibility to match. When Walker taps into this more modern-sounding mode, though, it’s important to realize there’s no pandering involved. Even though his roots go back way further, he didn’t begin establishing his own sound as a solo recording artist until the ’80s, so it’s entirely natural for his style to have picked up some rock & roll attack along the way. Crucially, he never overdoes it, maintaining just the right balance between the understated and the in-your-face. He hasn’t stopped growing as a songwriter either — Walker’s original tunes dominate the album, and they reveal both a strict avoidance of lyrical blues tropes and a knack for deftly inserting thoughtful observations in between burning riffs and gut-level grooves.
***
FAME REVIEW | Written for the Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange by Mark S. Tucker
When I tell you that Joe Louis Walker plays a cherry red Les Paul and a Paul-styled Yamaha axe, ya just might get a hint of what’s to come. This guy is already being acclaimed for his innovative approach to the blues, but I’m not sure it’s as much ‘innovative’ as ‘very deeply informed’. With 20 releases to his credit, this one the second for the highly impressive Stony Plain imprint, that’s neither small praise nor is it lightly given. Walker sings with a sassy upper register voice but plays like a combination of Jimi, Stevie Ray, Frank Marino, and one of his heroes, Buddy Guy.
Once again, leave it to Duke Robillard to dish up the talent, producing 10 of the 12 cuts here, playing on one, infiltrating that trademark Duke swing influence chockablock with Walker’s own. I’m beginning to suspect he’s not really human at all but rather a corporate pseudonym for a dozen unnamed individuals: the guy’s busier than a one-legged man at a butt-kicking contest! Nonetheless, the highlight is Walker and his guitar, and you get plenty of both, what with jumping vocals alongside a band that keeps the rhythms nailed and the atmosphere hot.
If There’s a Heaven is grittier than hell, a chugachunk lowball number hopeful of redemption, an inflamed blues lament that digs way beneath the surface. Walker lays down a churning chordal structure as thick and dark as asphalt, then lofts several tightrope solos atop while singing of a lowdown past redeemed by repentance and good deeds, mounting to a burning “I don’t wanna go back no mo’!”…and you believe every syllable. It’s as good a conversion song as I’ve heard. If this isn’t picked up by any number of rockers and bluesbands, I’ll be amazed. When this guy gets his head of steam stoked and boiling, step back or you’re going to get rolled over.
Between a Rock and the Blues should bring Mr. Walker much more to the fore. Heaven alone is going to blow minds but the entire release will appeal to all and sundry with its New Orleans, Chicago, and God only knows how many other refrains. He started out way back when as a buddy to Mike Bloomfield… whose tragic death convinced him to change his ways, getting serious, for a while backing gospel groups and later playing with immortals like B.B. King and—excuse me while I bow to Mecca… Peter Green. Williams has been there, done that, and still finds endless ways to, as he himself says of his icons, keep it fresh. Expect, then to hear his surname rolling off a lot more tongues.
Oh, and speaking of innovations, he penned what has to be one of the great riffs on an old old line: “I’ve been down so long, gettin’ up never crossed my mind!” (and that cut, “I’ve Been Down”, features Kevin Eubanks on second guitar; hot damn!).
***
WICHITA BLUES SOCIETY | Between a Rock and the Blues
Joe Louis Walker is back with his 20th album. I mean he is really back with a solid album. He has chosen a hand picked back up band with Bruce Katz on keys, Roomful alum: Duke Robillard, Doug James, Carl Querfurth and Sugar Ray Norcia.
“I’m Tired” sets the pacing with uptempo rocker, featuring Walker’s wailing’ guitar and Katz’s Hammond B3, I wonder if it the same B3 built right into road case that he had here for Plaza Jazz years ago?
“Eyes Like a Cat” is barrelhouse dance tune with Trombone from Carl Queforth and Walker picking better that ever. Do you remember Walker here years ago with Otis Rush at River Blues? Don’t you wish that one back?
“If There is a Heaven” is blues down and dirty. A slow groove that pulls you in with his wanting to go heaven, instead of hell for his crimes.
I could go on and describe each track, let me say that this a well-balanced CD with a wide variety of beats, grooves and tasteful tunes.
I cannot say enough about Walker’s guitar playing on this CD. He is at the top of his game. I own many of his CDs and this one rank this right up there. Walker at his best with the backup band that stone cold good. A Modern Blues Classic. – Randy Crump
***
Blues & Jazz Review – by Sue Moore
Joe Louis Walker has a brand new cd out this month called Between A Rock and the Blues and if you are not familiar with Joe’s enthusiastic take on all things blue then this is a body of work to take notice of. (Between A Rock and the Blues is his second album with the respected Canadian based Stony Plain record label but he has released twenty albums in total over his career.) Walker is no mimsy, wannabe poser but instead combines all the energy and licks of a Buddy Guy with a quietly intentional swing that may be partly attributed to arch producer and swing-God himself Duke Robillard who produced the lion’s share of tracks on this album. There’s some pretty impressive songwriting skills from Walker on show as well and that also makes this record distinctive from just another blues record for the masses.
There are some very impressive musical personalities here to help Walker out. Kevin Eubanks well known of course for his guitar expertise and musical direction on The Tonight Show makes an appearance on two tracks (which he also helped co-write) namely I’ve Been Down and If There’s A Heaven and additionally, Eubanks provided his own studio in Los Angeles for Walker’s production of the tunes. I particularly like If there’s a Heaven which is gutsy and heart-felt and feels as though it was lifted from a vintage gospel radio station. (One that I would like to find!) Listen up for the insistent band in the background – ever present, always groovin’ – but completely tight and providing the perfect foil for Walker’s rasping and tortured vocals – which are superb. Some of the band members will be familiar names for anyone who is a follower of Duke Robillard. Doug James is here on sax and Bruce Katz on keyboards and that certainly helps to inject that telltale element of swing that is so often associated with Robillard. And of course I am a shameless fan myself – as regular readers will already know! (Hi Mum …) Haha.
This cd is kind of all over the place in terms of blues style (and many with a rock tinged sensibility hence the clever album title) so really, this is the kind of record that could serve as both a ‘sampler” for those just dabbling in the blues as well as a hand-me-that-one for long car journeys or evenings in. Tell Me Why is another tune destined for the ‘repeat’ button and Walker really gives it his all – it’s all about that heavy chunky locomotive shuffle coupled with some really scalding guitar work. (Incidentally, in spite of all his strenuous enquiries, I don’t think Joe ever really does find out why, does he …)
Perhaps JLW’s greatest strength – aside from the ability to pull off some stinging, powerful guitar phrasing, I mean – is the completely believable passion that he brings to his records. Click on the play button below for some samples to listen to and see what you think.
***
HONEST TUNE
by by Fred Adams, 10/08
Joe Louis Walker is indeed a Witness to the Blues. It’s been said that only B.B. King has taken the blues further, and to more destinations, than Walker. With the release of Witness to the Blues, Walker proves to be just as vital as ever, continuing to redefine blues in the 21st century, just as he has throughout the past four decades.
Walker wrote the majority of the 11 tracks on Witness to the Blues, which also includes stellar takes on two traditional numbers – “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” and “Sugar Mama.” The disc also features Scott and Jo Jo Benson’s “Lover’s Holiday,” a duet with Shemekia Copeland that many listeners will consider the highlight of the CD.
Producer Duke Robillard is a major contributor to this project, bringing out the best in Walker. The result is a disc that recalls the heyday of the famed Stax label; a hard-edged collection of blues that finds Walker performing acoustic, electric and slide guitar, as well as several harmonica solos.
Backed by a band that includes Robillard on guitar, Jon Ross on bass, Mark Teixeira on drums, and a horn section comprised of Doug James, Bruce Katz, and Scott Aruda, Walker once again continues to be a defining force in American blues music. While the traditional tunes may be the most instantly recognizable, Walker’s original material, such as “Midnight Train” and “I Got What You Need,” are traditional classics in the making, sure to be studied by students of the blues for many decades to come.
***
BluesRevue.com
Dec/Jan 2008 by Hal Horowitz
“The combination of guitarist/singer/songwriter Joe Louis Walker with producer/guitarist Duke Robillard is an inspired one … ‘Witness to the Blues’ is one of Walker’s finest efforts … he seems particularly inspired on this set, perhaps because he finally has found a producer who brings out his best.”
***
Living Blues
Dec. 2008 by David Whiteis
“His fretwork is indelibly stamped with his own trademark blend of emotional heat and impeccable precision – even at his most flamboyant, Walker sounds as if he’s playing ideas, not just notes … Eclectic romps like this often sound like dilettantish self-indulgence, but Walker immerses himself in everything with such abandon that it all sounds fresh; in fact if you didn’t know better, you’d probably swear that he had played a major role in inventing some of these styles himself … This isn’t museum-piece revivalism; it’s an extended love song to the blues, conceived and sung by one of the music’s modern-day masters.”
***
About.com
Best Blues CDs of 2008
Witness To The Blues is the veteran bluesman’s latest and greatest, 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 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.
***
BluesSource.com
by Mark Smith
With a long and storied career that has included stints with John Lee Hooker, Thelonius Monk, Steve Miller, Jimi Hendrix and others, singer/guitarist Joe Louis Walker has had the opportunity to soak up lots of influences which he shows off on this disc. Joined by numerous guests including Duke Robillard (guitar), Bruce Katz (keys), Doug James (sax) and Shemekia Copeland (vocals), Walker lays down some horn driven funk, It’s a Shame, rockabilly, Midnight Train, jazzy ballads, Witness, blues filtered through the Rolling Stones, Rollin’ & Tumblin’, acoustic blues, I Got What You Need, harmonica driven shuffles, Sugar Mama, and bluesy torch songs, Lover’s Holiday. As if this diversity isn’t enough, the call and response of Keep on Believin’ allows Walker to revisit his gospel days while the salacious 100% More Man puts him firmly at the other end of the righteousness scale with the saucy lyrics made all the more potent by a smoking slide guitar that would have Muddy Waters grinning.
Each of these cuts is delivered by Walker with a voice that evokes comparisons to Buddy Guy when he’s having fun and John Hiatt when he wants to get gruff. But, Walker doesn’t have to sing a word to take you on a musical journey: Highview is an instrumental scorcher that gives Walker and Robillard a chance to jam on guitars and Katz a chance to get the pot boiling at full steam with his scorching b3 breaks. Worthy of much play!
***
NewsReview.com
Since his debut disc 23 years ago, Joe Louis Walker has witnessed a lot of blues, and here, on his 20th album, the 59-year-old guitarist/ singer/songwriter celebrates that legacy. Prior to Cold Is the Night, his 1986 recording on the Oakland-based Hightone label, Walker and his band—originally called The Dictionary of Soul (after an Otis Redding LP)—played Chico a few times and, after the album’s release, continued to build a local fan base during the next 15 years. In fact, Walker’s band was the first to play in Sierra Nevada’s then-uncompleted Big Room in December 1999. Long a major international blues star, Walker is teamed up here with guitarist Duke Robillard (who produced the CD) with great effect. Among the highlights are “I Got What You Need,” an acoustic duet with a “Hip Shake” flavor; “Highview,” an instrumental with solid solos by both men; a duet with Shemekia Copeland on “Lover’s Holiday”; the smoking “Midnight Train” and “100% More Man,” both gritty blues. Lowlights are Walker’s smoke-alarm-style harmonica playing on “Sugar Mama” and his strained vocals on two other songs. The pluses, however, vastly outweigh the minuses. A bonus video program is included. – Miles Jordan
***
Soultracks.com
One of the most surprising things about Joe Louis Walker – apart from his skills as a singer, guitarist, songwriter and producer – is the impact he has had as a performer who proves to international audiences that the blues are alive and very well indeed.
Only B.B. King has taken the blues further, and to more destinations, than Walker. Now, with a new internationally-released album on the Canadian roots music label Stony Plain, he’s ready to pack his suitcase once again.
Witness to the Blues is a tour de force – a varied, smart, funny, hard-edged collection of blues that ranges from acoustic to rockin’ horn-laden material that reminds you of Stax in its heyday. Walker handles the vocals (including a duet with young blues diva Shemekia Copeland), plays acoustic, electric and slide guitar, and adds some harmonica solos as well.
In fact, Joe Louis Walker, helped by guitar-master Duke Robillard (who produced the CD and played on many of the tracks), makes a major contribution to the much-needed campaign to bring the blues into the 21st century.
In many ways, Walker’s story is unusual. Born in San Francisco (on Christmas Day 1949) and now based in Westchester, New York, he was part of the Bay Area blues scene in his early teens, and by the time he was 16 he had soaked up the sounds of the likes of T-Bone Walker, Amos Milburn, and boogie woogie pioneers Meade Lux Lewis and Pete Johnson. As he grew up, he found himself on stage with such disparate tutors as John Lee Hooker, Thelonius Monk, the Soul Stirrers, Steve Miller and Jimi Hendrix. And by the time he was 19 he had built a close friendship – they were roommates for many years – with Mike Bloomfield.
Bloomfield’s tragic early death persuaded the young Walker to change his life. He enrolled at San Francisco State University, earning music and English degrees – and performing regularly with a gospel group, The Spiritual Corinthians.
In 1985, he came back to the blues, fronting a new band he called The Bosstalkers, and making the first of five albums for the HighTone label, before signing to PolyGram’s Verve/Gitanes label, for whom he recorded another six albums.
These records served as an entrée into the European market. Sterling appearances at major festivals throughout Europe (North Sea Jazz, Glastonbury, Nottoden and Montreux among them) led to further tours and festivals in Japan, Australia, Taiwan, Ireland, Turkey and Brazil.
Along the way he played President George Bush’s inauguration, helped President Bill Clinton induct B.B. King into the Kennedy Center Awards, and performed on America’s most-watched late-night television shows.
Joe Louis Walker is a walking encyclopaedia of blues history, and blues vocal and guitar styles. In fact, one of the very few who can match his eclectic tastes in music is Duke Robillard, the veteran guitarist who founded Roomful of Blues when he was a teenager, and who has made a dozen albums for Stony Plain.
Holger Petersen, who heads the Canadian-based roots label, was delighted by the choice of Robillard as producer for Witness to the Blues. And for Robillard, the sessions were a joy. “There’s a lot of diversity on this CD, yet it hangs together really well.” The material – more than half the 11 tracks were written by Walker – includes two traditional blues pieces (”Sugar Mama” and “Rollin’ and Tumblin’”) which he completely transforms. A highlight of the CD is a killer duet with Shemekia Copeland on the Peggy Scott & Jo Jo Benson classic, “Lover’s Holiday.”
The back up players are all musicians with long experience with Robillard, including horn players Doug James and Scott Aruda, Bruce Katz on keys, Jon Ross on bass and Mark Teixeira on drums. Robillard himself adds guitar parts on five cuts.
Both vocally and instrumentally, Joe Louis Walker is indeed a “witness to the blues,” and the creative, sometimes startling approach to America’s most significant music holds a bright lantern for others to follow.
***
Sonic Boomers
Bentley’s Bandstand, 12/3/08
There aren’t many real-deal blues players left. Not the kind who come up out of the ghetto, maybe get a chance to find a fleeting fame before hard times and bad habits shoot them down, and then spend years struggling to get back to the starting line again. Life doesn’t often offer that kind of understanding anymore. Now it’s a wham-bam-thank-you-mam world. You get one chance, and if it works, maybe a few years in the spotlight. B.B. King has had a 60-year career. Will John Mayer? We’ll see. But there’s always an exception to the rule, and bluesman Joe Louis Walker just might be it. He got started young in the San Francisco Bay area, and grabbed plenty of attention for a deep-rooted guitar style that could mine the low down and also aim high. Plus the man can sing. His voice has plenty of gospel roots, but is no stranger to the dark end of the street. It’s that attraction of opposites that gives it tension, and allows Walker to swing between sin and salvation with such ease. Witness To The Blues serves up plenty of room to wail. There are standards (“Rollin’ & Tumblin’” and “Sugar Mama”), inspired originals (“Witness” and “Keep on Believin’”), a red-hot instrumental (“Highview”) and a cover of Peggy Scott and Jo Jo Benson’s “Lover’s Holiday” done as a duet with Shemekia Copeland that’s the sound of love itself. In fact, if these two don’t do a whole album together the execs at the label should be kicked back to the shipping department. Their voices have the amorous attraction at the heart of all great duos, and remind us sometimes a man and a woman really should share the microphone. Album producer Duke Robillard is no slouch on the guitar either, and steers these songs straight up the river all the way to shore. Joe Louis Walker has paid his dues, bought the T-shirt, brought it home and headed back for seconds. This is his time.
***
METRONOME MAGAZINE – BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Art Tipaldi
For years, song writing flair, guitar acumen and production sense have distinguished Joe Louis Walker as a focal point of contemporary blues. Since he first hit the blues circuit in the 1980’s, Walker has released 18 critically acclaimed records. With Grammy and Blues Music Awards a plenty, Walker has now joined forces with Stony Plain Records, the cream of Canadian roots music. For this effort, Walker enlisted Duke Robillard to produce, added many of Duke’s musical friends in the band, and set up shop in one of Duke’s favorite studios in West Greenwich, RI.
The disc opens with Doug James baritone honkin’ as Walker and Duke trade hot licks on J.J. Malone’s “It’s A Shame.” Walker’s other covers include a devilish, up-tempo duet with blues starlet Shemekia Copeland on the Peggy Scott/Jo Jo Benson classic “Lover’s Holiday.” Backed by Bruce Katz’s B-3 chords, Copeland and Walker breathe fresh life into this Southern soul staple from 1968. His cover of Muddy’s “Rollin’ And Tumblin’” with Katz’s electric piano has all the energy of early 1960’s British invasion covers. Walker’s solos combined with his aching vocals and Mark Teixeira’s precise thumps give this time worn blues chestnut a very different coloring.
Since Walker’s work with Scotty Moore on Walker’s Great Guitars, JLW has developed an affinity with the guitar tremolo and reverb from Moore’s pioneering rockabilly days. “Midnight Train” has Walker’s shivery bends recharging Moore’s experimental days in Sun Studios. On the instrumental “Highview,” Walker, Robillard, and Katz cook up seven minutes of jive guitar talk as Walker and Robillard mimic and respond to each other’s “can you do this” challenge. Duke and Joe Louis also strap on the steel body resonators, slip a slide of the finger, and sit on the porch eye to eye to dish out a knee to knee delight on “I Got What You Need.” The deepest blues is Walker’s “100% More Man,” Walker’s modern take on the classic Muddy Waters’ ensemble blues from the early Chess days. It’s Walker’s frantic slide calls answered by Katz’s Spann-like piano.
The record ends with another Walker take on the traditional blues “Sugar Mama.”
While Walker’s acoustic, high end blows on the intro will drive your pets crazy, Katz’s rambling barrel housing piano and Walker’s string bending create a gentle sway that suggests this party should never end. All in all, JLW has always been one of the most satisfying, intensely driven blues artists. This CD is the perfect way to celebrate that life in the blues.
***
Blurt-Online.com
by REV. KEITH A. GORDON
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….
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.
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.
Standout Tracks: It’s all good.
***
BluegrassSpecial.com
by David McGee
On Witness to the Blues, Joe Louis Walker has topped himself, and that’s saying something. With an able assistant from producer/guitarist Duke Robillard, Walker fashions an invigorating jaunt into blues country, working that Memphis-Muscle Shoals-Clarksdale axis for all it’s worth with a horn-bolstered band, a variety of guitars at his disposal and a stirring collection of songs, more than half of which he penned, ranging from mean woman blues to gospel-rooted pleas.
History, personal and otherwise, runs rampant on these tracks: check out the Sly Stone “Take You Higher” horn quotes energizing the album opener, “It’s a Shame”; the rousing rockabilly foundation of his own “Midnight Train,” which blends the doghouse bass and fierce rhythm of Elvis Presley’s Sun side with the grit and urgency of Junior Parker’s original Sun recording, and even references a memorable lyric from the source song at the end; and twice on the record he makes reference to being “100 percent more man” (including in a grinding, wailing blues near the end titled, yes, “100% More Man,” concerning a young woman who can’t be bothered with his advances), perhaps a testosterone reduction in deference to the late Bo Diddley, who famously boasted of being “500 percent more man.” Well, Joe Louis need bow to no man when it comes to proving his masculinity quotient. He proves here that he can mess up, make up, seduce and testify with the best of the breed. One of the compelling, tender moments comes in his reprise of the Peggy Scott/Jo Jo Benson salacious classic, “Lover’s Holiday,” with Walker and Shemekia Copeland engaging in a sultry duet reminiscent of heated couplings on disc by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas, an impression reinforced by the funky Stax-style backing keyed by a scratchy guitar and Bruce Katz’s voluble organ support (a symbolic tipping of the hat to the three Walker albums co-produced with Steve Cropper?). Adding depth to the subject matter is Walker’s powerful, churning “Witness,” a Muscle Shoals-styled mussing of the gospel/soul boundary line in which he reflects on the numbing number of lost, lonely, needy souls he sees all around him, even while admitting to personal spiritual failings en route to “my way back home.” Describing his quest in anguished detail, Walker shouts an aggrieved testimony over a rich musical backdrop percolating along at a steady, midtempo march but escalating in intensity as the song evolves, culminating in a grand explosion of organ, piano, guitar and thunderous drums as Walker howls, “Raise up! Raise up!” in exhorting his listeners to reach out to the less fortunate among them, an appeal as inspiring as Springsteen’s “Rise up! Rise up!” in “The Rising,” and a forceful reminder to boot of Walker’s deep roots in gospel music as a former member of The Spiritual Corinthians. Echoes of Jimmy Hughes permeate “Keep On Believin’,” which in title and style comes out of the church and heads for secular ground (it’s a man’s vow to stay true to a woman whose feelings for him are uncertain), again with Katz’s emotive organ dominating the feel of the track and Walker injecting trebly, anxious guitar lines and being shadowed vocally by an insistent chorus in call-and-response mode. It’s always a treat to hear JLW do an acoustic number, and this album’s suggestive Delta blues, “I Got What You Need,” is a righteous, rhythmic workout between the artist and his producer, playing in tandem and trading bristling solos, Walker on slide, Robillard picking, and JLW expressing to his reluctant paramour his desire to be “your 100 percent man,” a theme fully developed two songs later.
Witness To The Blues is indeed what its title claims-an overview of the blues in various manifestations and via the modes of expression common to specific topographies of the music. It’s also the latest in a heartening number of terrific new albums by blues veterans over the past two years, including those by Nappy Brown, Koko Taylor, B.B. King (see review in this issue), Buddy Guy (see review in last month’s issue) and Irma Thomas. And it’s a heck of a statement by a blues master who awaits the broad mainstream acclaim he deserves. That he keeps on believin’ is our gain.
***
THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT – 10/08
Rating: 4-stars
As he’s demonstrated for more than 30 years, West Coast artist Joe Louis Walker continues to be a triple-threat performer, adept at searing vocals, rootsy original songs and a taut, stinging guitar style. All that’s in full evidence on “Witness to the Blues,” his debut for Canada’s Stony Plain blues label lovingly produced by master guitarist Duke Robillard.
Backed by a crack Stony Plain house band anchored by the solid keyboard underpinnings of Bruce Katz, JLW plies his expressive soulful Otis Redding-style voice and razor guitar riffs over a body of mainly original songs.
The hour session opens with a spirited, horn-fueled soul workout using a riff “borrowed” from Sly Stone. Arrangements are kept in a straightforward Stax/Volt style eschewing any boring “American Idol” pop slickness or modern synths and effects. A highlight is “Lover’s Holiday,” a steaming duet between JLW and Shemekia Copeland that recalls the legendary collaborations between Redding and Carla Thomas.
A “Witness to the Blues”? Sure enough, but here Walker also offers heated testimonies to soul, jazz and R&B. – Eric Feber, The Pilot
***
Folk and Acoustic Music Exchange by Bob Gottlieb
Joe Louis Walker presents us with a wide ranging overview of the blues on this, his first, Stony Plain Records release, and his first release in a couple of years and one of his best he has done in many ways. He is truly one of the most exciting and innovative blues artist working the clubs today and on this release he is paired with another guitarist in disguise as a producer, who comes close to Joe Louis’ varied tastes and experiences, Duke Robillard. Robillard brings his years of playing with Roomful of Blues, which he founded, and the Fabulous Thunderbirds to the fore here as he takes the role of producer and contributes his tasty guitar to five of the eleven tracks of this very focused look at a variety of styles of the blues.
The music here reflects Walker’s growing up in San Francisco (born in ‘49) and the wide range of influences that were available to him. It ranges from acoustic to horn driven material that sounds like it came right out of the Stax studio from back in the 60’s, to hard edged blues powered by electric guitar and some very tasty slide guitar. His singing is superb through it all. reflecting the time he spent with the Spiritual Corinthians, after his roommate for years, Mike Bloomfield died, and including a wonderful duet with Shemekia Copeland. He is backed by a powerful group that includes Bruce Katz on piano and organ and Doug James on baritone and tenor sax. You might not know the name Joe Louis Walker now, however once you hear this disc you’ll not forget it. One of the best out so far this year in the blues field.
***
BluesMagazine.nl review (click to view)
***
BOSTON BLUES
by Brian D Holland, 10/08Joe Louis Walker’s latest release, Witness to the Blues, is an all-inclusive collection of wonderful songs.
Since many blues aficionados have a tendency to put Walker atop the list of modern-day greats – those who are carrying the torch and keeping the music alive – Witness to the Blues is certainly assisting in that endeavor. And it’s fitting for Duke Robillard to jump in to lend his producing and guitar playing talents (as well as the rest of his band) to the project, as they both have so much in common.
The fact that both artists record for Stony Plain Records more than likely had a lot to do with making the partnership happen, but fate transpires in many steps sometimes.
Although they both share an interest in the music of T Bone Walker, another aspect of common ground is their aptitude for diversity, a trait that also goes back to the great T Bone.
The only repetitive aspect about the album is the quality of the music, and the fact that it’s all fine blues, except perhaps for “Witness.” Though fine music as well, it’s more of a contemporary ballad than anything in a traditional sense, and it adds nicely to the varied mix.
Duke does a superb job on both electric and acoustic guitar throughout, and his skills as co-producer are evident. Add in drummer Mark Teixeira, keyboardist Bruce Katz, bassist Jon Ross, and Doug James and Scott Aruda on horns. Two-thirds of the songs on the 11-track disc were penned by Walker, and it all comes together as a genuine collection of assorted blues.
Nevertheless, Joe’s vocal sound is what it’s all about, and his Jimmy Reed-like harmonica playing and solid guitar work shine as well. His voice is raw and unrefined, and perfect for the Chicago style intensity that’s prevalent in a lot of the songs.
“It’s A Shame” opens the album. The J.J. Malone written soul tune stresses Walker’s adoration for the styles of both James Brown and Otis Redding. The background horn section and its rhythmic interplay aids in maximizing the palpable funk feel from start until finish.
“Midnight Train” is an interesting gallop into a rockabilly blues area, in which both Robillard and Walker convey the notion that they’re not only more than used to playing this style of music, but that they’re having a good time doing it.
“Lover’s Holiday” features Shemekia Copeland in a lead vocal duet with Walker. Both shine in the r&b classic, as does Robillard, with solid lead guitar additives in a Steve Cropper groove.
“Hustlin’” flows along in a lethargic yet soulful Chicago manner.
Both “Sugar Mama” (featuring British blues guitarist Todd Sharpville,) and “Rollin’ and Tumblin” are in a Chicago style as well. However, the latter is done in more of a 60s Butterfield-Bloomfield approach.
“I Got What You Need” is an acoustic blues. Both Walker and Robillard excel in this Delta flavored song.
Witness to the Blues is a fine collection of songs from Walker. The music is genuine, and diversity shines everywhere – keeping it interesting and pleasing throughout. Much of the credit goes to Robillard, because nobody keeps busier in the quest to create excellent blues music – on other people’s records as well as on his own.
***
BLUESWAX.COM
Joe Louis Walker has had an illustrious career. His most notable recordings were The Gift and Live At Slim’s Vol. 1, both on Hightone Records (1990-1992) and six albums with the Polygram-Gitanes-Verve Records group (1993-1999), including JLW, Blues of The Month Club, Great Guitars, Preacher and The President, and Silvertone Blues. He has won three Blues Music Awards, including two for Contemporary Blues Male Artist of The Year and has had a total of 39 nominations. His fifteenth album and the first for Stony Plain Records is Witness to The Blues and it was produced by Duke Robillard.Joe Louis Walker’s band on this recording was assembled by Robillard and it includes Walker (vocals, guitars, and harmonica); Robillard (guitar), Bruce Katz (piano and organ), the horn section ofDoug James (saxes) and Scott Aruda (trumpet), and the rhythm section of Jon Ross (bass) andMark Teixeira (drums).
Walker opens the album with J.J. Malone’s “It’s A Shame” and the horn section gets to workout. Walker has written five new songs, including “Midnight Train” and “100% More Man.” On these Walker and Robillard trade some hot guitar licks. They ignite, however, on the almost psychedelic instrumental “Highview.” The other originals are the title track “Witness” and “Keep On Believing.”
Walker has also co-written “Hustlin” with Joe Russo and “I Got What You Need” with Robillard. The traditional songs “Rollin and Tumblin’” and “Sugar Mama,” have both been rearranged by Walker and he gives them each a new twist. Walker is also famous for his duets with B.B. King and James Cotton and he gives us another one for the ages as he duets with guest vocalist Shemekia Copeland on “Lover’s Holiday.”
Walker’s Blues includes Gospel, Soul, and Rock influences and his expressive voice is as strong as ever. This new CD is Walker’s best in almost a decade and credit has to be given to Robillard for a great production job. This album is highly recommended.
Richard Ludmerer is a contributing editor at BluesWax.
***
Blues Underground Network
Joe Louis Walker is a walking encyclopedia of blues history, and blues vocal and guitar styles. In fact, one of the very few who can match his eclectic tastes in music is Duke Robillard, the veteran guitarist who founded Roomful of Blues when he was a teenager, and who has made a dozen albums for Stony Plain. Holger Petersen, who heads the Canadian-based roots label, was delighted by the choice of Robillard as producer for “Witness to the Blues.” And for Robillard, the sessions were a joy. “There’s a lot of diversity on this CD, yet it hangs together really well.”
The material – more than half the 11 tracks were written by Walker – includes two traditional blues pieces (Sugar Mama and Rollin’ and Tumblin’) which he completely transforms. A highlight of the CD is a killer duet with Shemekia Copeland on the Peggy Scott & Jo Jo Benson classic, Lover’s Holiday.
The back up players are all musicians with long experience with Robillard, including horn players Doug James and Scott Aruda, Bruce Katz on keys, Jon Ross on bass and Mark Teixeira on drums. Robillard himself adds guitar parts on five cuts.
Both vocally and instrumentally, Joe Louis Walker is indeed a “witness to the blues,” and the creative, sometimes startling approach to America’s most significant music holds a bright lantern for others to follow.
***
LUXURY EXPERIENCE
Joe Louis Walker is a troubadour of blues and on Witness to the Blues he surrounds himself with a Who’s Who of musicians and covers a variety of the blues.
Witness to the Blues: It’s a Shame, Midnight Train, Lover’s Holiday, Hustlin’, Witness, Rollin’ & Tumblin’, Highview, I Got What You Need, Keep On Believin’, 100% More Man, Sugar Mama
Personnel: Joe Louis Walker: Vocals, Electric, Acoustic, Slide and Ratchet Guitars, harmonica; Bruce Katz: Piano, Organ; Jon Ross: Electric and Acoustic Guitar; Mark Teixeira: Drums, Percussion; Duke Robillard: Electric and Acoustic Guitar; Todd Sharpville: Electric Guitar; Doug James: Baritone and Tenor Saxophone; Scott Aruda: Trumpet; Shemekia Copeland: Vocals
Witness to the Blues was produced by Duke Robillard on the Stony Plain Records label. The world of Joe Louis Walker is the blues, and Witness to the Blues captures the energy and soulful sound that only the well traveled, award winning Joe Louis Walker can create. Crisscrossing the globe to spread the word of blues, he is a tireless worker always ready to embrace an audience and show them his blues sound. Taking control from the first song It’s A Shame, he showers us with the horn section drawing us into his world as he captures your heart with his engaging vocals. Midnight Train brings it down and dirty getting to the roots with rolling guitar riffs that will move you along the train tracks of this hard hitting song.
Lover’s Holiday features a stimulating duet with up-and-coming blues vocalist Shemekia Copeland. Hustlin’ written by Joe Louis Walker sums up his dedication to spreading the message of the blues to a global audience as he hustles with rollicking guitar licks complementing a pulsating piano. He slows it down with the gospel and soul roots track Witness and shows off his special gift for rendering a song meaningful and poignant.
His arrangement of Rollin’ & Tumblin’ and Sugar Mama get back to the core blues as he tightens up the sound and lets the music do the talking especially the haunting harmonica and lyrics of Sugar Mama. Highview is an acoustic track drawing from hard-edged and Chicago style blues that features the passionate duo of Joe Louis Walker and Duke Robillard trading licks as they cut through the song like a hot knife through butter. I Got What You Need features the duo of Joe and Duke belting out Delta Blues as they trade guitar leads against Joe’s vocals.
Diversity is what Joe Louis Walker is about, and on Keep On Believin’ he uses a Gospel sound, and getting back to the basics of blues he makes use of the slide guitar to roll with his lyrics on 100% More Man.
Diversity, passion, and a love for the essentials of all things blues, is what Joe Louis Walker is about; he is a troubadour of blues, and the world is a better place for it.
