Joe Louis Walker
Weight of the World
(Forty Below Records)
4 out of 5 stars
Videos by American Songwriter
Like many blues musicians of a certain age, Joe Louis Walker (at 74) is just as vibrant and compelling, arguably more so, as on his 1986 debut.
Walker’s emotional vocals and taut guitar have kept him working and releasing albums at a steady pace, hopping from high-profile blues imprints like Alligator, Stony Plain, Telarc, and Verve to smaller labels such as JSP, Cleopatra, Provogue, and now Forty Below. All have been professionally played and produced, and while not every one of his two dozen or so releases are classics, Walker’s work ethic stays on high boil. He never phones it in live either, which makes him a roots festival natural. It’s probably what has kept him alive financially all these decades when his recordings haven’t clicked commercially.
He has also seldom stuck strictly with one genre. Weight of the World is a perfect example of his talents working in and combining soul, gospel, rock, funk, a bit of jazz, and of course blues. In that way, he’s closer to other multi-genre musicians like Robert Cray who push their boundaries. This ten-track set finds him collaborating with producer/guitarist Eric Corne (Walter Trout, John Mayall), who also wrote or co-composed five of the originals.
The pairing connects as Walker rocks a tough Texas shuffle, and pulls out his harmonica, on “Root Down” (a treatise on not staying in any place too long), the Hi Records/Al Green-styled horn-enhanced soul of “Don’t Walk Out the Door” (perhaps Walker’s finest vocal moment as he pleads to his partner who is leaving We just had, so much emotion/That our hearts, didn’t know what to do) and kicks into a New Orleans second line beat in the tough “Waking Up the Dead,” featuring his raw slide lines. He pounds out basic Stones/Chuck Berry licks on “Blue Mirror,” knocking into a roaring Keef-like guitar solo for a tune about playing the blues in a juke joint with the titular name. On it, keyboardist Scott Miller pounds the 88s like Johnnie Johnson for one of this set’s most propulsive, and sweaty, moments. Like most of these tunes, it exudes the excitement and electricity of a live performance. And when he digs into the soul/bluesy “Bed of Roses,” or the jazzy groove of the closing jam, “You Got Me Whipped,” it’s clear that Walker is on top of his game.
Why he can’t attract a larger audience with the consistent quality of his output is unclear. But Joe Louis Walker has never stopped crafting potent, emotionally charged roots music, and Weight of the World is one more example of his hefty talents.
