★★★★★
Joe Louis Walker's career has been as varied as it has been long. From an early age, Walker was part of the burgeoning and influential San Francisco blues scene, having first been exposed to the music by his Southern immigrant parents. Already playing in the clubs at 16, he was at home backing established acts and setting in motion a later career that would blend blues, jazz and psychedelic rock...
- www.popmatters.com
2014-05-05
★★★★★
Joe Louis Walker can play guitar and that's the truth. The Chicago-based blues singer has been a presence on that city's music scene for decades now, releasing albums on an almost annual basis since the late 1980s. Alibums such as 1990's Gift and 2003's Between a Rock and the Blues reveal a musician with serious guitar chops as well as a gospel-tinged megaphone of a voice. Never a purist, Walker is unafraid to incorporate plenty of rock and roll and even a little funk into his arrangements...
- www.popmatters.com
2012-02-02
★★★★★
Having come of age in San Francisco during the height of acid rock, Joe Louis Walker has always displayed more dexterity than the generation of blues artists that preceded him. His formal training in music and deep knowledge of other styles, ranging from jazz to gospel, has also set him apart. But now with this shift to Chicago label Alligator, after two albums for Edmonton-based Stony Plain, Walker is intent on reaching the widest demographic of blues fans out there...
- exclaim.ca
2012-02-02
★★★★★
Blues powerhouse Walker has set a very high bar for releases in this genre for the rest of this young year. Hellfire rumbles like a veritable steamroller, each track a standout in its own right; the styles and moods may shift but never the high-voltage emotional charge. Walker kicks off the set with the title track: a full-frontal assault by voice and guitar packed with the sort of power many artists would hold back for later...
- rootsmusicreport.com
2012-01-30
★★★★★
I know, life is never this simple. But last time bass player Henry Oden had four songwriting credits, three of them winners. This time he's got none. Standout: the unsoullike, unaccompanied "I'll Get to Heaven on My Own."
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-17
★★★★★
No text for this review; see http://robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg90/grades-90s.php.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-17
★★★★★
Producer-penned songs begin and fancy up each side, which is half the Hightone story--this would be one more piece of moderately sharp spit-and-shuffle blues without that spit-and-polish. The other half is label honchos Bruce Bromberg and Dennis Walker's insistence on artists determined to rise above--like Robert Cray, Ted Hawkins, and JLW, who must have started out emulating both Junior Wells and Buddy Guy and taken it from there.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
No house-band barrocker, no funkified keep-up-with-the-times hopeful, never show up on a Tina Turner album. Like they say, he just plays the blues. Yet between sharp tempos and wordly-wise material, he overcomes the boredom factor built into that time-worn endeavor. Even when he lays back his beat has a forward tilt, and he's not proud about where he gets his songs--from producers or band members or fellow guildsmen...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
It's heartening to hear Joe Louis Walker's lead-off track "It's A Shame" off his highly entertaining Stony Plains release Witness To The Blues. It's a funk-drenched tune that goes back several decades to J.J. Malone, a major nurturing influence in the Bay area where JLW hails from. Joe Louis is in fine fettle. His superior vocal and guitar chops put him in the vanguard of the blues elite. Funk but one spoke on the proverbial blues wheel. Give Mr. Walker his props as he leaves no stone unturned...
- www.jazzreview.com
2009-06-08
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