Joe Louis Walker - Witness To The Blues
ARTIST.....: Joe Louis Walker
TITLE......: Witness To The Blues
LABEL......: Stony Plain
URL........: http://www.myspace.com/joelouiswalker
RIP DATE...: Sep-25-2008
STORE DATE.: Sep-30-2008
GENRE......: Blues
QUALITY....: VBR / 44.1Hz / Joint-Stereo
SIZE.......: 90,8 MB
Track Listing:
01 - It's A Shame 06:20
02 - Midnight Train 04:19
03 - Lover's Holiday 04:17
04 - Hustlin' 05:20
05 - Witness 06:10
06 - Rollin' & Tumblin' 04:57
07 - Highview 06:51
08 - I Got What You Need 05:17
09 - Keep On Believin' 04:30
10 - 100%% More Man 07:15
11 - Sugar Mama 06:25
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61:41 min
Release Notes:
One would be hard-pressed to name any other blues performer in the
past two decades who has produced such a body of recorded work to
stand-up to that of Joe Louis Walker. Rooted in the blues and soul
traditions, and informed by his time in gospel groups, he has been
able to rock with going heavy-metal over the top. No one covers
such a range of blues at such a consistent high level as Walker
who has a new disc, Witness to the Blues (Stony Plain). The disc
was produced by Duke Robilliard who brought together a backing
band anchored by the keyboards of Bruce Katz and includes Doug
James on baritone and tenor sax as well as Scott Aruda on trumpet.
Robilliard himself adds guitar to 5 of the 11 songs, which
includes several new Walker originals as well as interpretations
of songs that have not been overdone (no Sweet Home Chicago or
Mustang Sally). An example of the latter is J.J. MaloneÆs ItÆs a
Shame, that opens this set. It has a nice funky groove with
stinging guitar which contrasts with Midnight Train, a rocking
original with a tinge of rockabilly flavor in the backing and some
guitar with echoes of Ike Turner. I am not familiar with the
original of LoverÆs Holiday, which is a fine soul duet with
Shemekia Copeland. It is followed by HustlinÆ, a slow blues whose
melody echoes Little WalterÆs EverythingÆs Gonna Be Allright, with
a lyric about ôhustling my life away,ö and contains a fiery solo.
WalkerÆs adaptation of the traditional RollinÆ and TumblinÆ brings
life to well known blues, owing as much to Elmore JamesÆ recording
as the better known renditions, although WalkerÆs voice at a
couple spots here sounds a little hoarse. ôHighviewö is a mid-
tempo guitar instrumental with Katz also getting some solo time.
along with Robillard trading fours with Walker, but musically
seems to meander a bit. Walker plays some fine acoustic slide on I
Got What You Need, a country blues by him and Robilliard, while
Keep on BelievinÆ, is a soulful ballad with a backing vocal
chorus. 100%% More Man, is a driving slow blues similar melodically
to ElmoreÆs Twelve Year Old Boy, with plenty of driving slide,
while Walker plays some high-note harmonica on Sugar Mama, with
some nice accompaniment from the band (KatzÆs piano is very solid
here). This is quite an enjoyable recording as Walker sounds quite
good here, although some of the performances meander a bit and
some editing would have kept the performances more focused. Still,
it is a very good recording, although not one of WalkerÆs best.