Joe Louis Walker Blues Hall of Fame Inductee Live At Chan's New Date Fri. June 2, 2023!

Joe Louis Walker Blues Hall of Fame Inductee Live At Chan's Friday June 2, 2023!
2017 Grammy Nominee.
Six Time Blues Music Award Winner.

"A LEGENDARY BOUNDARY-PUSHING ICON OF MODERN BLUES" - NPR

Joe Louis Walker was also named the winner of the 2015 Living Blues Awards – Critics' Poll as "Most Outstanding Musician (Guitar)."
In addition, JLW is a featured performer in the 2015 Living Blues Awards Readers Poll winner – Best Blues DVD of 2014: Various Artists A Celebration of Blues and Soul: The 1989 Presidential Inaugural Concert (Shout! Factory)

Release Party for New CD: Weight of the World

Photo By: Marilyn Stringer

Info Courtesy: joelouiswalker.com

"Powerful, soul-stirring, fierce and gritty. A legendary boundary-pushing icon of modern blues." --NPR Music

Blues Hall of Famer Joe Louis Walker added another distinguished honor to an ever-growing list of personal achievements by being named the 2016 Blues Foundation Blues Music Award Contemporary Blues Male Artist of the year.

Joe was also nominated for Best Rock Blues Album of the Year for his masterful "Everybody Wants a Piece" album, released on Provogue Records.

Throughout his lengthy career, Joe is recognized as one of the leading lights on the blues scene, having performed and recorded with artists ranging from the likes of B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and countless other well-known and legendary names.

Joe is one of the greatest bluesmen of his generation. He is a four-time Blues Music Award winner and 2013 Blues Hall of Fame inductee who has appeared on multiple Grammy-winning albums. He is known worldwide as one of the genre's top musical trailblazers—a mesmerizing guitarist and soul-testifying vocalist.

The New York Times raves, "Walker is a singer with a Cadillac of a voice. He delivers no-nonsense, gutsy blues. His guitar solos are fast, wiry and incisive, moaning with bluesy despair." Rolling Stone simply calls him "ferocious."

Joe continues to tour worldwide, bring his mix of blues, rock, soul and gospel to his devoted fans throughout the world. "I'm extremely pleased to be honored by the Blues Foundation as this year's contemporary male blues artist winner," said Walker. "I've devoted my life to my music and it's always a wonderful feeling to be recognized for doing something you love. I appreciate this award very much."

Joe Louis Walker picked up the guitar as a child, and by 16 was regularly backing touring blues artists rolling through town. He was the teenage house guitarist at San Francisco's famed musical playground The Matrix, where he played with or opened shows for everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Thelonious Monk. The blues legends Walker accompanied shared not only musical knowledge but also their personal wisdom with the teenage up-and-comer. Fred McDowell, Ike Turner, Albert King, Freddie King, Lightnin' Hopkins and others taught the youngster. Inspired by these masters, Walker developed his own fiery, melodic and unpredictable guitar attack.

Walker met legendary guitarist Michael Bloomfield in 1968 and the two became fast friends. Bloomfield helped push Walker's blues in a more rock-fueled direction, and he became the biggest early influence on Walker's sound. From 1975 to 1985, Walker performed nothing but gospel music. In 1986, after Walker returned to playing the blues, Hightone Records released his debut CD, Cold Is The Night. Firmly rooted in blues, gospel, R and B and rock, the album caught the attention of music fans around the country.

Before joining Alligator Records in 2012, Walker had released 23 albums and toured the world virtually non-stop. He has garnered four Blues Music Awards (and has been nominated 52 times) and holds an international reputation as one of the blues' most prolific and talented stars. He's also recorded as a guest with some of the blues world's best-known artists, including appearances on Grammy-winning records by B.B. King and James Cotton.
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His Alligator debut, "Hellfire", took the blues world by storm in 2012, receiving the Living Blues Critics' Award for Blues Album Of The Year. The Chicago Tribune said, "His playing is ferocious. His solos spin wilder and wilder with the kind of fierce embellishments that Jimi Hendrix might've conjured." The success of the album helped land Walker and his band on TBS's CONAN.

In 2013 The Blues Foundation inducted Walker into The Blues Hall Of Fame. "I am honored to be in the company of the great artists already inducted," Walker said. "I hope to live up to the honor." Joining the ranks of previous inductees including B.B. King, Hound Dog Taylor, Koko Taylor, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Etta James, Howlin' Wolf and other blues greats while still at the peak of his musical powers, is, as Walker says, "a dream come true."