Description
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 and now Forty Below. 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.
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.
