Iconic Bluesman Joe Louis Walker Teases New Album With Premiere of ‘The Weight of the World’ – American Blues Scene

On February 17th, songwriter, singer, and guitarist Joe Louis Walker will release his new album, Body weight of the Environment, by way of Forty Below Data. Recorded with producer Eric Corne (John Mayall, Walter Trout, Sugaray Rayford), Fat of the Earth is an impressively broad sweep via genres as effectively as Walker’s longtime influences.

The album was recorded just exterior of Woodstock, NY with musicians Scott Milici (Keys), John Medeiros Jr.(Drums), Geoff Murfitt (Bass), Eddie Jackson (Bongos), Marc Pender (Trumpet), David Ralicke (Saxophone), Eric Gorfain (Violins), Gia Ciambotti (Track record Vocals) and Eric Corne (Qualifications Vocals, Guitar), who also engineered and blended the album –with Walker and Corne splitting crafting responsibilities.

Quite a few organizations have regarded this prolific blues/roots musician for his achievements He’s a member of the Blues Hall of Fame, 6-time Blues Audio Award winner, and has won various W.C. Handy Awards. He’s been a receiver of both of those San Francisco’s Bammy Awards and a life time achievement award from the Mississippi Valley Blues Modern society. A musician’s musician, Walker has been called “a nationwide treasure” by Herbie Hancock. Chick Corea cleverly labeled him “The Chick Corea of Blues,” while Aretha Franklin termed him “The Bluesman.”

Through his storied vocation, Walker has dueted with B.B. King on his Grammy Award-successful Blues Summit album and performed guitar on James Cotton’s Grammy-successful album, Deep in the Blues. He’s executed at tunes festivals this sort of as Glastonbury and Montreux, and on national tv with appearances on Late Evening With Conan O’Brien, The Don Imus Show and Later on With Jools Holland in the British isles.

Walker has recorded with Ike Turner, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, and Steve Cropper, among the others he’s also opened for Muddy Waters and Thelonious Monk. “I believe having supper with Muddy Waters each and every other day, when he allow me open up for him a few months in 1970, is anything I’ll by no means forget about – as perfectly as him seeing me participate in and giving me tips, hoping to help me become a far better musician and bandleader. It was the old Colonial Tavern in Toronto. I also have fond recollections of all the folks you have pointed out, which I’m placing in my ebook following yr.”

Premiering right now is the title keep track of, a metaphor for the times in which we are living – a article-pandemic entire world of both equally costs and global temperatures climbing.  “Out in this article at the edge of the planet / It’s starting up to curl / We’ve upset the significant shareholder,” he sings in a soulful vocal glide. No question Walker is a dyed-in-the-wool bluesman, but if you back and look at the other 30 records in his discography, you will see soul audio as a key component. And curiously, with this tune in particular, a wave of Major Ingredient (the band)-model melody washes around. “I feel blues, soul, gospel, and jazz are all cousins,” Walker tells me. Continuing, “Rock and roll is the offspring of the blues, as Muddy Waters explained. So all I’m doing is reaching into my influences, when it fits.”

The Eric Corne-penned “The Weight of the World” means just what it says. “‘Woke up with the excess weight of the entire world on my shoulders.’ I think we all get that experience it’s universal,” states Walker. “Much of the album is an ideal observation to some of the difficulties of the working day, and the result these troubles can have on a individual (“The Bodyweight of the World,” Is It a Make any difference of Time,” “Hello, it is the Blues,” “Waking up the Dead”…) The titles and the music paint a image of some of the issues that we all have concerns about. 

Of the album, Walker states, “Instrumentally, we’ve been able to employ devices that aren’t usually applied in the blues style: violins, nylon string guitar, and so on. Hopefully the listener will hear the tunes and say, ‘That’s the way I feel’ or ‘That’s what I was considering.’ I’ve labored with numerous producers and Eric Corne’s expertise places him appropriate up there. He is a triple danger: songwriter, singer, producer. Very talented and he’s got a vision of where he desires to go.”

Walker designs to tour extensively to help the new history, expressing, “The band and I are chomping at the little bit to engage in these music dwell!”