Joe Louis Walker
“A LEGENDARY BOUNDARY-PUSHING ICON OF MODERN BLUES” - NPR
Multiple Grammy & WC Handy Award winner Joe Louis Walker is one of the most heralded blues artists of our time. Walker has recorded with BB King, James Cotton, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, Branford Marsalis, and Ike Turner. Walker has become an international ambassador for the blues overseas, having played at countless festivals throughout Europe, South America, Australia, the Middle East, and Asia. Joe Louis Walker is already being referred to within the blues world as a "living legend." However, as Walker himself would say, "the best is yet to come!"
A true powerhouse guitar virtuoso, unique singer and prolific songwriter, Joe Louis Walker has toured extensively throughout his career, performed at the world’s most renowned music festivals and earned a legion of dedicated fans. He has opened for Muddy Waters and Thelonious Monk, hung out with Jimi Hendrix, Freddie King, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and was a close friend and roommate to Mike Bloomfield.
Walker’s 1986 debut album “Cold Is the Night “on HighTone announced his arrival in stunning fashion, and his subsequent output has only served to further establish Walker as one of the leading bluesmen on the scene. The New York Times raves, "Walker is a singer with a Cadillac of a voice.. His guitar solos are fast, wiry and incisive, moaning with bluesy despair." Rolling Stone simply calls him "ferocious." Walker finally takes his rightful place among the pantheon of legendary electric blues singer/guitarist/songwriters like B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Luther Allison. Blues Revue calls Walker "one of contemporary blues' most dynamic and innovative. musicians, releasing consistently exciting music... 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."
"For many years now Joe has been raining fire with his guitar and spitting brimstone with his vocals. His playing "blows all over the map…gutbucket blues, joyous gospel, Rolling Stones-style rock crunch, and aching R&B. Walker’s guitar playing is fine and fierce." - Billboard
JLW is a modern bluesman, at ease with mixing, matching and sometimes trampling as his heart dictates; attacking each song like the gospel vocalist he once was, while his guitar rips down the walls.