It's quite remarkable that some artists like Joe Louis Walker manage to sustain an incredible quality of sound and energy as the years go by, even after something like 20 plus albums recorded. Everybody Wants A Piece, out on 9th October, is his new, highly entertaining album, that travels across Walker's music influences since he was a teenager.
On his own admission, to record this album was almost a "no brainer" for Walker and his band, an ensemble of highly skilled musicians that fuses perfectly the spirit and the style of this guitarist Virtuoso.
Walker, together with an indisputable ability as a guitarist, has also the gift to be highly versatile as a songwriter too. Black & Blue is almost a R&B ballad, on which JL Walker talks about conflicts of the heart between a couple and is perhaps one of the songs where the whole band has the opportunity to flex their musical muscles splendidly.
Witchcraft has got a very sinuous 70's funky tempo. One Sunny Day carries instead that blues/rock torch so much loved by Walker throughout his career. Gospel Blues is a delicate instrumental blues piece, where the ability and the class of the American Artist in playing guitar, with that nocturnal, almost intimate sound, raises straight to bar 10 in excellence and talent.
Buddy Guy's cover of Man Of Many Words has got that real depth and intensity able to rival even the original, through the powerful voice of Walker, his formidable band and a horn section that gives the feeling of being in the presence of a true R&B orchestra.
A record that oozes authenticity and passion for the blues and all the different musical shades or colors applicable to the genre.
Everybody Wants A Piece offers exactly what the album describes in his title. Eleven songs that each contain a piece of the talent of this gifted musician. A truly beautiful album.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Everybody Wants A Piece can be pre-ordered on Mascot Label Group website or through Amazon
