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Joe Louis Walker
December 25, 1949 - April 30, 2025
Louis Joseph Walker Jr known as Joe Louis Walker,
was an American musician, best known as an electric
blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer.
His knowledge of blues history is revealed
by his use of older material and playing
styles.
As an obituary in the Guardian put it, “Joe
Louis Walker was a remarkable singer, guitarist
and songwriter, but above all he was a serious
bluesman.
If you were looking for a cheerful blues
night out, hearing familiar songs and
greeting them with shouts of “Yeah,
boogie!”, Walker would not have been
your best bet. From the first, he stood
out as a composer of ingenious,
intelligent songs, which he made sound
blue regardless of their musical form.
His allegiance was to the inner
character of the blues rather than to its
external structure.” Tony Russell
(Guardian, 9 May 2025)
He grew up in San Francisco, to which
his parents had moved from Arkansas.
They took with them a deep love of the
blues. “My father would come home
from work in construction and have
his dinner and he’d have his record
player right here. He’d put on Amos Milburn, Rosco Gordon, Howlin’ Wolf. And
then, when he wasn’t playin’ it, my mother was – BB King, always BB King.”
Walker recorded with Ike Turner, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, and Steve Cropper,
opened for Muddy Waters and Thelonious Monk, hung out with Jimi Hendrix,
Freddie King, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and was a close friend and roommate
of Mike Bloomfield.
Walker’s home page lists twenty-seven albums, on more than a dozen labels. He
will be sadly missed.
Ian K McKenzie
