onurblues: Little Toby Walker - Little Toby Walker (2001)

May 29, 2022

Little Toby Walker - Little Toby Walker (2001)

Little big (blues) man
In 2001, Toby Walker, well known here (1), was still "Little". Since then he rightfully dropped down this nickname for the simple reason that he is one of the most talented contemporary acoustic country blues (slide) guitar picker. A simple listen to the first track of this debut album, the jokingly titled "Take A Little Walk With Me" (little walk, Little Walker… he he he), would be enough to be convinced. But you just don't want to stop to this opening track. The 16 following songs are all in the same vein : a treat of finger-picked and slide old-time Delta country blues !

Like the pre-war bluesmen, Walker loves to sing and write story-telling songs, preferably humorous and if possible filled with sexual connotations. The album is full of them.

The tracklist features originals from Walker ("Take A Little Walk With Me", "Who's Gonna Be Your Sweet Man Tonight ?", "Full Figured Women" with "a nod to Taj Mahal" "Big Legged Women"), and personal versions of both old traditionals ("Stack O' Lee", "Irish Fiddle Medley", "Monkey In The Pool Room", "Sitting On Top Of The World" and "Catfish Blues") and songs from renowned bluesmen (Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Willie McTell, Scott Joplin, Sonny Boy Williamson II) or less famous artists (Bo Carter, Tampa Red, Sam Chatmon, Jack Owens).

The fourteen covers are seriously revisited by Walker. The case of "Kismet Rag" is a good example of Walker's talented adaptation work : Scott Joplin, who wrote this instrumental, was not playing guitar but… piano ! Still Walker, helped by the arrangement of Dick Fegy, makes it sound so natural on guitar.

Among the traditionals picked up by Walker, some have an interesting history. "Stack O' Lee", also known as "Stack-a-Lee", "Stagger Lee", "Stagolee" and other variants, is a traditional field holler about the shooting of Billy Lyons by a bad tempered mobster pimp and gambler named "Stag" Lee Shelton, in St. Louis (Missouri), at Christmas 1895. The blues rebel tradition has always shown an ambiguous fascination for outlaws and Walker sings it with very expressive intonations over a devilish guitar picking, insisting on the chorus phrase  "he's a baaad man, yes a baaad man Stack O' Lee".

Sonny Boy Williamson II

"Born Blind", better known as "Eyesight to the Blind", was recorded first in 1951 by Sonny Boy Williamson II aka Aleck "Rice" Miller. In 1957, he re-recorded it, this time under the title "Born Blind" backed in particular by Otis Spann (piano), Robert Lockwood and Luther Tucker (guitars), and Willie Dixon (bass). The song was covered later notably by B.B. King, Mose Allison, Mike Bloomfield, David Bromberg, Eric Clapton, and used by Pete Townshend in a musically much transformed version, for the Who's famous rock opera "Tommy". 

"Sitting On Top Of The World", was first recorded in 1930 by Walter Vinson & Lonnie Chatmon, from the Mississippi Sheiks, and later covered by numerous artists in different genres : blues (Big Bill Broonzy, Charley Patton, Howlin' Wolf in a Chicago blues styled electric version), folk, country (Milton Brown, Bob Willis, Willie Nelson), bluegrass (Bill Monroe, Doc Watson), rock (Cream). With such coverage the song became a standard of American folk music.

Note that the Chatmon (or Chatman) family, known as The Mississippi Sheiks from the 1930s, is very well represented on the album : in addition to "Sitting On Top Of The World", "All Around Man" was created by Bo Carter whose real name was actually Armenter Chatmon. His brother Sam would be the author of "The Lead's All Gone".

Jim Jackson

"Catfish Blues" a perfect example of the double-entendre art mastered by blues singers, is a famous traditional Delta blues song whose lyrics appeared for the first time in 1928 in "Kansas City Blues Part 3" sung by a popular black medicine-show entertainer and songster named Jim Jackson. Charley Patton recorded it as “Going To Move To Alabama” in 1929. A blues song actually titled "Catfish Blues" was recorded by Robert Petway in 1941. In the early 1950s, Muddy Waters adapted it as "Rolling Stone". Later, in the late 1960s, it was again covered by Jimi Hendrix.

Walker manages the "tour de force" of making these revisited covers sound as "new" as his own originals. His light hoarse singing is highly expressive. In finger-picking style as in slide, on regular acoustic or steel resonator guitar, the man's skills are impressive but without any showing-off which is the mark of a great guitar master. This first strike was indeed a master one. ■

(1) See : Toby Walker - Hand Picked (2008) and Toby Walker - Shake shake Mama (2011)