Following on from the release of his latest album Everybody Wants A Piece on Provogue/Mascot Label Group, the amazing blues guitar maestro that is Joe Louis Walker will be returning to the UK for 5 special shows.
Looking back on his rich musical history, Joe said, "I'd like to be known for the credibility of a lifetime of being true to my music and the blues. Sometimes I feel I've learned more from my failures, than from my success. But that's made me stronger and more adventurous. And helped me create my own style. I'd like to think that when someone puts on one of my records they would know from the first notes, 'That's Joe Louis Walker.'"
Born on Christmas Day, 1949 in San Francisco, at age 14, he took up the guitar. Just two years later, he was a known quantity on the Bay Area music scene, playing blues with an occasional foray into psychedelic rock. For a while, he roomed with Mike Bloomfield, who introduced him to Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead. Walker even made a brief pilgrimage to Chicago to check out the blues scene there.
In 1975, burned out on blues, Walker turned to God, singing for the next decade with a gospel group, the Spiritual Corinthians. When the Corinthians played the 1985 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Walker was inspired to embrace his blues roots again. He assembled the Boss Talkers, and throughout the 1990s merged many of his gospel, jazz, soul, funk and rock influences with his trademark blues sensibilities on recordings released by Polydor/Polygram.
These albums feature Walker’s collaborations with a diverse group of first-rate artists including Branford Marsalis, James Cotton, Tower of Power, Bonnie Raitt, Buddy Guy, Taj Mahal, Ike Turner and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown. Walker has steadily released recordings since the turn of the millennium, and recently signed to Provogue / Mascot Label Group.
Prime venues for a Blues Giant, dont miss out
UK TOUR DATES
Thursday 9th June – Dingwalls, London
Friday 10th June – Worthing Pier’ Southern Pavilion, Worthing
Saturday 11th June – The Brook, Southampton w/Cisco Bluesman
Sunday 12th June – The Globe, Cardiff w/The Mojo Sinners
Monday 13th June – The Convent, Stroud
Listen to the electric 'Everybody Wants A Piece'
