Joe Louis Walker CD Preview

Stony Plain Records has announced a September 29, 2009 release date for blues guitarist Joe Louis Walker's Between a Rock and the Blues album. The follow-up to Walker's acclaimed 2008 release, Witness to the Blues, the latest effort from the multiple Grammy™ and Blues Music Award winning guitarist features more of his trademark blend of blues, soul, gospel and R&B with enough six-string flourishes to make any fan of blue guitar squeal with delight.

Ten of the album's twelve tracks were produced by Stony Plain Records labelmate Duke Robillard, who also plays his guitar alongside Walker. The band assembled for the album includes noted saxophonist Doug James, keyboardist Bruce Katz, bassist Jesse Williams, and drummer Mark Teixeira as well as harpist Sugar Ray Norcia…quite a crew by any account. Former Tonight Show bandleader Kevin Eubanks brings his underrated guitar talents to a couple of tracks co-written with Walker.

Walker's previous release, Witness to the Blues, received universal acclaim, and hit #1 on the Living Blues magazine radio chart. Downbeat magazine's critic's poll picked the album as one of the year's best, while Blues Revue magazine called Walker, "one of contemporary blues’ most dynamic and innovative musicians, releasing consistently exciting music." No less an authority than the Reverend himself, in Blurt magazine, called Walker "a phenomenal guitarist, a singer with a warm, soulful voice, a solid songwriter and a dynamic showman."

Expect even bigger and better things from Between a Rock and the Blues when the album hits your local independent music dealer at the end of September.

Photo courtesy Stony Plain Records