JOE LOUIS WALKER

Hellfire

Alligator

By Eric Steiner

Joe Louis Walker’s Alligator Records debut, Hellfire, offers up 11 new original songs as he celebrates his 26^th year as a blues man.  His early years in the San Francisco Bay area included opening gigs for legends like Magic Sam, Muddy Waters, Freddy King, John Lee Hooker and Jimi Hendrix, and in the late 1970s he roomed with transplanted Chicagoan Mike Bloomfield.  After Bloomfield’s tragic death in 1981, Joe Louis turned to Gospel (and education).  While studying for a degree in Music and another in English at San Francisco State University, Walker sang and played Gospel music with the Spiritual Corinthians for 11 years.  In 1985, he had an epiphany of sorts at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival that led him (fortunately for fans of contemporary blues) back to the blues.  In 1986, High Tone released Cold is the Night, and since that release, Joe Louis has recorded more than 20 CDs on Polydor/Polygram, Telarc, Evidence, JSP, and most recently Stony Plain.

Hellfire draws upon Joe Louis’ years as a rock and roll and Gospel practitioner. The lone Gospel entry, “Soldier for Jesus” is straight from the fire-and-brimstone pulpit on a Sunday morning complete with background vocals from the legendary Gospel vocal quartet, The Jordanaires (founded in 1948, they sang behind Elvis Presley, Eddy Arnold, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, and an entire roster of influential popular American artists, both in the sacred and secular realms). 

This past March, Walker sang “Ride All Night” from Hellfire on Conan O’Brien’s late-night TV show on TBS; this song is one of three that remind me of the blues-infused, full-tilt spirit of rock and roll abandon that weaved its way through the groundbreaking double LP from The Rolling Stones, Exile On Main St.  (Fortunately, the Conan video is parked at Joe Louis Walker’s website, and his slide playing is particularly effective).  The other two songs that could have landed on my favorite Glimmer Twins LP are “Too Drunk To Drive Drunk” and “Black Girls.”  “Drunk” is a four-minute rocking blues that opens with some high octane piano from Reese Wynans behind Joe’s screaming guitar and high energy opening vocal attack. The horn trio of Matt White on trumpet, Roy Agee on trombone and Max Abrams on sax help me remember Bobby Keys’ signature horn parts that added tasty nuances behind the Stones music; the song offers each player an opportunity to contribute a high-energy solo.  Joe Louis ends “Too Drunk” with an appropriate reminder: “Remember: everybody in the club, drive safe on the way home. The car you hit just might be mine!”

“Black Girls” is another rocker that seems like it was plucked from the late ‘70s; it’s an homage to female vocalists in which JLW name drops Aretha, Tina and Shemekia. Wendy Moten’s backing vocals on this song are right-on (think Merry Clayton or Chaka Khan), with just the right amount of sass and attitude at the right time behind Joe Louis’ all-over-the-fretboard antics.

There’s a lot of raucous rock-tinged blues on this CD, but I keep coming back to softer ballads like the original “I Know Why” and the Hambridge-Fleming love song “I Won’t Do That.” Producer/drummer/Grammy recipient Tom Hambridge expertly guided this project through his hometown Sound Stage studio in Nashville.

In June, Walker will play the Chicago Blues Festival and at S.P.A.C.E. in Evanston, and this summer, his itinerary includes the famed Iridium in New York, festivals in Europe and the Kitchener Blues Festival in Ontario, one of my favorite blues festivals in North America. Whether you see him at Buddy Guy’s Legends or a blues festival, you’ll see a contemporary bluesman at the top of his game.  As Joe Louis begins his second quarter-century in the music business, Hellfire will ensure that he’ll get the attention of Blues Music Award nominators and voters; last year he received the prestigious BMA statuette for his 2010 release on Stony Plain, Between a Rock and the Blues.  He can count that one among his three other awards, and 48 nominations over his storied career.

Eric Steiner is president of the Washington Blues Society in Seattle, Washington and a member of the Board of Directors of The Blues Foundation in Memphis, Tennessee.