Joe Louis Walker: Viva Las Vegas Live

Prolific recording artist and guitar legend Joe Louis Walker, aged 69, has a fascinating history as a former teen prodigy who played with the likes of John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, and Jimi Hendrix before walking away from his chosen music, the blues, to pursue gospel for several years. Eventually returning to the blues format, Walker made a name for himself as a virtuoso player, composer, producer, and collaborator (Bonnie Raitt, James Cotton). In this 2018 concert filmed at Las Vegas’s Boulder Station, the still-youthful Walker plays a lively 10-song set backed by a spare crew of bass, drums, and keyboards. Mining every opportunity to turn a solo into a lengthy expression of emotional nuance, Walker hits the ground running with the highly-charged manifesto "I’m Not Messin’ Around," followed by songs of lament, yearning, and passion. The excitement ramps up when Walker switches guitars and starts playing with a grittier, crunchier sound and different tuning, turning powerful tracks such as "Soldier for Jesus" and "You Don’t Love Me Girl" into taut rockers. Also featuring "Sugar Mama," "Young Girls Blues," and "Too Drunk to Drive Drunk," this is an engaging concert with solid camerawork that captures Walker’s fingers crawling with spidery finesse over his strings. Presented in stereo and packaged with a bonus audio CD, this is recommended. (T. Keogh)