I saw blues vocalist\/guitarist Joe Louis Walker play live a
\ncouple of summers ago. He put on a great show and electrified the
\ncrowd with a song called “Bluesifyin'” which he told the crowd he
\nwas going to play “the Joe Louis Walker way – slow and hard”. He
\nwasn’t lyin’; he surely was bluesifyin’!<\/p>\n
The recording for this song is on his 1995 release called
\nBlues Of The Month Club<\/i>, and this studio version is pretty
\nintense as well. “Bluesifyin'” is a tribute to legendary bluesmen
\nof the past such as Muddy Waters and many others that are mentioned
\nby name. I am guessing that the old masters would be proud of
\nWalker for this song.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, very little on
\nBlues Of The Month Club<\/i> comes close to that kind of
\nintensity. Walker doesn’t seem to be even trying to get to that
\nlevel, as this is pretty much a pop-oriented recording. This CD is
\nWalker’s bid for the kind of crossover success that Robert Cray had
\nwith his
\nStrong Persuader<\/i> album. One problem is that Walker is not
\nthe charismatic singer that Cray is. The other problem is the songs
\nare not consistently as strong.<\/p>\n
Not that there aren’t any good moments on
\nBlues Of The Month Club<\/i>. The title song is very clever, and
\nthe cover of Ike Turner’s “You’ve Got To Lose” moves along nicely,
\nenhanced by some nice backup vocals by The Spiritual Corinthians.
\nWalker’s performances here are decent, helped out by the strong
\nmaterial.<\/p>\n
The very poppy “Lost Heart” proves that he can write a good
\nhook, and even under such lower expectations, the band does
\nprovides great instrumental support. Mike Epply’s organ solos are a
\nstandout, and Walker truly is a gifted guitar player.<\/p>\n
But once you get to “Bluesifyin'”, then you realize what this CD
\ncould have been, and everything that comes afterward is a big
\nletdown. The rest of the CD is mostly forgettable pop-oriented
\ntunes that sound a bit tired. Even a rockabilly track called “Play
\n‘Em Where They Lay” lacks any real spark.<\/p>\n
The only time he returns to form is on “Second Street”. Not that
\nthis is a great song, but it sticks out as a highlight of the
\nsecond half of the CD. Here Walker plays a mean slide guitar, and
\nhe sounds like he is having fun again. Another change of pace tune,
\n“Your Lyin’ Eyes”, is an unsuccessful attempt at John Lee Hooker’s
\nbrand of folk blues. Walker lacks the nuances needed to pull off
\nthis type of number.<\/p>\n
\nBlues Of The Month Club<\/i> is certainly a listenable CD but it
\nis also a disappointing one. Walker and his band are too talented
\nto make a terrible recording, but they deserve better material than
\nthey get here. Instead of looking for that crossover hit, he should
\nhave been playing it “the Joe Louis Walker way”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":27573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7387],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-38948","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-joe-louis-walker","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38948"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}