Joe Louis Walker

Fri. Jan 10, 2014 at 9:30pm EST
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Joe Louis Walker

http://joelouiswalker.com/


 


The award-winning guitar slinger, passionate vocalist and gifted songwriter has been releasing groundbreaking music since 1986 and has toured  -- and continues to tour -- worldwide. The New York Times raves, "Walker is a singer with a Cadillac of a voice. He delivers no-nonsense, gutsy blues. His guitar solos are fast, wiry and incisive, moaning with bluesy despair." Rolling Stone simply calls him "ferocious."


Walker's discography includes 23 albums and two DVDs. He has won four Blues Music Awards, including the 2010 Album Of The Year Award forBetween A Rock And A Hard Place (Stony Plain Records), and has been nominated for 43 more. Walker's also recorded as a guest with some of the blues world's best-known artists, including appearances on Grammy-winning records by B.B. King and James Cotton.


 


 







Hellfire was produced by songwriter/drummer Tom Hambridge (producer of Buddy Guy's two most recent Grammy-winning CDs, Skin Deep and Living Proof, as well as albums for Susan Tedeschi, George Thorogood and others). Walker, who wrote or co-wrote seven of the CD's eleven tracks, says it's the hardest rocking and most deeply soulful album of his career. His blistering blues guitar playing and gospel-tinged vocals effortlessly blend throughout the album. The psychedelic overtones of the title track (a harrowing and personal tale of the struggle of good versus evil) give way to the slow, simmering and pleading What's It Worth? and full-force rock of the Stones-y Ride All Night. Walker's original showstopper Soldier For Jesus (featuring vocal harmonies from The Jordanaires, who also appear on Don't Cry) fits seamlessly alongside the other selections, making perfect thematic sense in the tradition of Al Green, Marvin Gaye or Prince, who all successfully combined carnal desires and gospel devotion.


Joe Louis Walker was born in San Francisco on Christmas Day of 1949. His parents were both from the South and they brought their love of blues with them when they headed west. Joe's dad played blues piano, and his mom played B.B. King records. Walker picked up the guitar as a child, and by the time he was 16 was regularly backing touring blues artists rolling through town. San Francisco's music scene was quickly becoming a melting pot of blues, jazz and psychedelic rock, and Walker was right in the center of it.


As a 16-year-old, Walker was the house guitarist at San Francisco's famed musical playground, The Matrix, where he played with or opened shows for everyone from Lightnin' Hopkins to Jimi Hendrix to Thelonious Monk. He was also a regular at The Fillmore West. These ear-opening surroundings explain the ease with which Walker blends blues, rock, gospel, jazz and country, making it seem as if walls between the styles do not exist.The blues legends Walker accompanied shared not only musical knowledge but also their personal wisdom with the teenage up-and-comer. Fred McDowell, Ike Turner, Albert King, Freddy King, Robert Jr. Lockwood, Lightnin' Hopkins and many others taught, fed, and chastised the youngster. Inspired by what he learned, Walker developed his own fiery, melodic, and always unpredictable guitar attack.


From 1975 to 1985, Walker performed nothing but gospel music, playing and singing as a member of The Spiritual Corinthians. In 1986, after Walker returned to playing the blues, Hightone Records released his debut CD,Cold Is The Night. Firmly rooted in blues, gospel, R&B and rock, the album caught the attention of music fans around the country.


With each subsequent release, Walker's audience continues to grow, as his touring schedule continues to expand. He's played major European festivals, including Northsea Jazz Festival, Glastonbury, Notodden and Montreux, as well as festivals in Japan, Australia, Taiwan, Ireland, Turkey and Brazil. He's appeared on national television, with performances on Late Night With Conan O'BrienThe Don Imus Show and Later With Jools Holland in the UK.


Fans and critics have been celebrating Walker for years. Blues Revue calls Walker "one of contemporary blues' most dynamic and innovative musicians, releasing consistently exciting music. No matter what he's singing, Walker's approach is soulful, heartfelt and spellbinding." Living Blues says, "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."







 

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.

 

 

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Sportsmens Tavern 326 Amherst Street
Buffalo, NY 14207
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