Blues legend, Joe Louis Walker, dead at 75
Joe Louis Walker, a blues legend and who Aretha Franklin dubbed “The Bluesman,” has died at age 75.
The electric blues musician passed away following a cardiac-related illness, Rolling Stone reported. He was with his wife of 16 years, Robin, and two daughters, Leena and Bernice, at the time of passing.
In his impressive career, the virtuoso guitarist and singer played with Bonnie Raitt, Mark Knopfler, Steve Cropper, and others. He earned praise from Herbie Hancock, who called him “the Chick Corea of Blues.”
He was deservedly inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, received multiple W.C. Handy and Blues Music Awards, was named a USA Fellow by United States Artists, and received a lifetime achievement prize from the Mississippi Valley Blues Society.
Walker lived a colourful life that began in San Francisco. By the late 1960s, Walker was gigging around the Bay Area as a teenager. For a while, he dabbled in the blues and the burgeoning psychedelic rock scene. He hung out with Jimi Hendrix, played with Mississippi Fred McDowell at the legendary rock club The Matrix, and befriended and eventually resided with Michael Bloomfield.
In the spirit of the 1970s, Walker’s progress faltered as he landed in jail. “I was a wild kid,” he told Rolling Stone in 1990. “I was just into making money for a drink or getting high.” Eventually, a performance with the gospel group at the 1985 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival pulled him back to the blues.
He released his debut album, Cold Is the Night, in 1986, and continued to release and experiment prolifically. This led to 2016, where he was nominated for a Grammy, Best Contemporary Blues Album, for Everybody Wants a Piece.
In an interview in 2016 with Blues Blast magazine, Walker talked of his democratised approach to music-making, explaining how the blues can, and should, be for everyone. He revealed: “The blues is impeachable as music. The founding fathers of blues gave us a template that works not matter what color you are, what your sexual preference is, what country you are from. It has given a lot of people a life they never remotely expected”.
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