Thursday, September 18, 2008

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-Joe Louis Walker

Artist:Joe Louis Walker f/Buddy Guy
Song:Every Girl I See
Album:Great Guitars




Joe Louis Walker is one of today's best and most entertaining blues guitarists. And this 1997 CD has all kinds of guest guitarists and is highly recommended. He was born Dec. 25, 1949 in San Francisco. He started playing guitar at age 8 and was active in the Bay Area music scene as a teen. He backed up all kinds of acts in those days and became very close friends and roommates with Paul Butterfield Blues Band guitarist Mike Bloomfield. In the 70s, Walker left the blues and played guitar for many years for the gospel group The Spiritual Corinthians. This change was probably caused by Walker observing Bloomfield's drug abuse and premature death. A 1985 performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival got Walker interested in the blues again and he formed his band The Bosstalkers and signed with Hightone Records. He moved to Jean-Phillippe Allard's Gitanes label in 1993. They had a distribution deal with Verve. The 1997 CD Great Guitars became one of the best selling blues albums of the 90s. It's an album of duets with great guitarists like Bonnie Raitt, Ike Turner, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Taj Mahal, Robert Lockwood Jr., Scotty Moore, Steve Cropper, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Otis Rush along with the Tower Of Power Horns. Every Girl I See has Walker dueling with Buddy Guy. It's a great album with a lot of Walker's trademark energy. Walker left Verve in 1999 and has recorded for several labels. He has now signed with Stony Plain Records and his new CD Witness To The Blues will be released on Sept. 30. It features Duke Robillard and Johnny Copeland's daughter Shemekia Copeland. Here's Joe Louis Walker with Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown performing Sugar at the New Morning club in Paris 1997.

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