Blue Soul | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | ||||
Studio album by | ||||
Released | 1989 | |||
Genre | Blues | |||
Label | HighTone[1] | |||
Producer | Joe Louis Walker | |||
Joe Louis Walker chronology | ||||
|
Blue Soul is an album by the American musician Joe Louis Walker, released in 1989.[2][3] Walker supported the album with a North American tour, backed by the Boss Talkers.[4][5]
Blue Soul was nominated for a Bammy Award, in the "Outstanding Blues Album" category.[6]
The album was produced by Walker; he also wrote the horn arrangements.[7][8] It incorporated hard blues, gospel, and folk blues sounds.[9] "Personal Baby" is about the virtues of fidelity in a relationship.[10] David Hidalgo played accordion on "Ain't Nothin' Goin' On".[11] "I'll Get to Heaven on My Own" is performed with just Walker's voice and slide guitar.[12] "Prove Your Love" is a soul song with overdubbed vocals.[13]
Robert Christgau deemed the "unsoullike, unaccompanied" "I'll Get to Heaven on My Own" the album's "standout" song.[15] The New York Times wrote that Walker's voice "is weather-beaten but ready for more; his guitar solos are fast, wiry and incisive, often starting out with impetuous squiggles before moaning with bluesy despair."[17] The Fayetteville Observer warned that "Walker nears Las Vegas-style schmaltz on a couple of early tracks."[18]
The Province noted that Walker "applies his light-fingered, spare guitar style to a variety of blues-styling, including soul and gospel."[19] The Chicago Tribune stated that Walker has "a contemporary style heavily influenced by B.B. King and the Stax sound, an impressive ability on guitar and an appealing vocal style marked a strangely velvety cragginess."[10]
AllMusic praised the "vicious guitar from one of the hottest relatively young bluesmen on the circuit."[14]
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Prove Your Love" | |
2. | "Ain't Nothin' Goin' On" | |
3. | "T.L.C." | |
4. | "Personal Baby" | |
5. | "Since You've Been Gone" | |
6. | "Alligator" | |
7. | "Dead Sea" | |
8. | "City of Angels" | |
9. | "I'll Get to Heaven on My Own" |