One of the ‘younger generation’ of players (although in Blues, the younger generation are often well into their 40s, 50s and beyond) Walker was born in San Francisco, California. His eclectic musical interests have taken a long time to develop into a cogent musical personality of their own – at one point, he even quit the blues and formed a gospel quartet.
It lasted ten years and provided a wealth of additional musical experience. As he has said it “gave me a better idea how to orchestrate a bigger group. With a gospel group, you had to know how to work a tune………I would concentrate on how to work up to a peak“.
His current series of albums are superior examples of modern blues and started off with “Cold Is The Night” in 1986, followed by “The Gift” in 1988 and “Blues Survivor” in 1993. He tends by and large to write his own material and his musical training allows him to arrange the recordings himself, including the horn parts, which is unusual for a guitarist – often the horn charts on a blues recording are set by the designated horn lead. He tends not to fall into the trap of recycling old songs (old riffs or old lyrics) and never sacrifices the blues base despite bringing contemporary influences to the material. In a recent interview, he says:-
“I don’t do cover songs…………I can’t do them better than they’ve been done“.
Even when playing an oldie live, he will rearrange it and give it a new and refreshingly different slant.
He doesn’t play to impress unnecessarily (no 100mph solos) which means he hasn’t fallen into any rock star posturing and this makes all his recorded work a pleasure to hear. If you don’t have anything by him, why not start with a fairly representative release – “Blues Of The Month Club” on Verve or “JLW“. A Primer favourite is the semi-acoustic 1999 release “Silvertone Blues“. This album proves JLW’s versatility, has the benefit of the great Kenny ‘Blues Boss’ Wayne on piano and features some great guitar and vocals by the man himself (along with guest appearances from Alvin Youngblood Hart and James Cotton) – wonderful stuff.
However, if the semi-acoustic, traditional style isn’t your bag, start with the aforementioned “Blues Of The Month Club” or the excellent 1998 release “Preacher And The President” – the latter again demonstrated Walker’s versatility over a range of styles, but it offers an easier way in for the uninitiated than “Silvertone Blues”. Walker’s restraint on this CD divided opinion and apparently reminds many blues fans of the glossy filler of Robert Cray rather than the gritty business of an Otis Rush or T-Bone Walker, all considered influences on Joe’s still singular style. What it clearly is, however, is a very fine example of the multiple flavours of the modern blues. A fine introduction, as is the 2007 release “In The Morning“!
2025 Postscript
If you want to go into the man relatively fresh, then try “Blues Comin’ On“, which came out in 2020 and has the added attraction of a raft of ‘guest artists’. Unusually, stars such as Keb’ Mo’, Eric Gales, Albert Lee, Mitch Ryder, Lee Oskar (from War), Hot Tuna’s Jorma Kaukonen, UK Subs’ singer Charlie Harper and veteran session guitarist Waddy Wachtel here inspire creativity rather than overwhelm like so many guest star tend to do.