Little Toby Walker - Toby Walker Plays Well With Others

File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Time: 51:20
Size: 121.0 MB
Released: 2006
Styles: Acoustic blues
Art: Front

1. She's Got Something There (2:49)
2. Nine Hundred Miles From My Home (4:22)
3. Beefsteak When I'm Hungry (3:32)
4. Been On The Job Too Long (3:35)
5. You Got Something On The Side (Intro) (0:24)
6. You Got Something On The Side (3:13)
7. Windshield Jam (0:56)
8. Looking At The World Through A Windshield (3:55)
9. Death Don't Have No Mercy (3:49)
10. 100 Real Good Reasons To Sing The Blues (4:34)
11. Turner's Retreat (2:07)
12. It Should've Been Me (3:41)
13. Southern Cross The Dog (3:51)
14. I Am A Pilgram (3:06)
15. I Hope I Get To Heaven (3:17)
16. Somewhere Over The Rainbow (4:02)

The most diversified and exciting CD Toby Walker has ever produced! With special guests Bob Margolin (Muddy Waters Blues Band), Ernie Sykes (Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys) and many other guest artists, Walker shows off a range styles including down home blues, swing and roots music. Teaming up with the songwriters Martha Trachtenberg (the voice behind Folgers Coffee) and Tom Griffith (producer of Dr. John, Ry Cooder, George Benson) this CD highlights an array of new and catchy songs, as well as bringing new life to traditional standards.
"As a blues guitar player, I am stunned and in awe of Toby Walker's pickin'! Not only does he master diverse blues styles, but plays them with both flash and depth. That's the advanced class -- few players can do both. It's obvious that Toby Walker is one of the most enjoyable artists in today's Blues World."...Steady Rollin' Bob Margolin

Toby Walker Plays Well With Others

---

Little Toby Walker - Shake Shake Mama

File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Time: 55:38
Size: 128,3 MB
Released: 2011
Styles: Acoustic Blues
Art: Front

1. Shake Shake Mama (3:22)
2. Crazy 'bout An Automobile (4:01)
3. Mama Tain't Long For The Day (4:17)
4. Travelin' Riverside Blues (4:14)
5. Keep On Trucking Mama (2:44)
6. Tootie Blues (3:36)
7. Keep Your Lamp Trimmed And Burning (2:36)
8. I Got To Love Somebody (2:31)
9. Midnight Special (4:56)
10. Shuffle Rag (2:14)
11. Can't Be Satisfied (3:02)
12. What's The Matter Now (3:45)
13. Meat Shakin' Mama (2:35)
14. Broke Down Engine (4:48)
15. She's 19 Years Old (2:54)
16. Cigarette Blues (3:57)

"Another artist carrying on the traditions of acoustic blues and following in the footsteps of John Hammond, Rory Block and Paul Geremia is Toby Walker. For listeners who derive their pleasures in the sounds of the Delta, Walker’s Shake Shake Mama will be a valuable cd to add to their playlist.
It’s a minimalistic album with wife Carol adding stand-up bass to several of the tracks. On the inner sleeve of the cd jacket, Walker lists the guitars used on all the songs. The make of some of the guitars stretches to the early twentieth century. A perfect choice for capturing sounds that have their seeds in the Delta soil unearthed.
Justice is paid to the old masters ranging from Robert Johnson to Muddy Waters. Walker’s slide unleashes a nervous tension and sprays steely fire on strings that sound like they’re pulled taut over a metal garbage can. His attack on Johnson’s “Traveling Riverside Blues” can make him the candidate for journeying to the crossroads and striking his own deal with the devil.
It’s the kind of playing that draws rave reviews from folks like Bob Margolin, John Hammond and Jorma Kaukonen. Making appearances at guitar clinics and Blues In The Schools is indicative of a musician who wants to pass the torch to the upcoming generations.
While his vocals are not technically perfect doesn’t matter. Very few players can capture Huddie Ledbetter’s “Midnight Special” with a lightning in a bottle effect. The tune is familiar to fans of Creedance Clearwater Revival. Although the rock band’s rendition is favorable, it’s got nothing on Walker who bathes the song in whiskey with 12-string guitar back-porch jubilee.
Indeed it is a record that more than lives up to the title. There’s the homage to Big Bill Broonzy in the cheerful “Shuffle Rag.” But it’s in Muddy Waters’ “Can’t Be Satisfied” that Walker is in his element. Just in this song alone can Toby make folks spill out onto the dance floor. His slide is giddy with drink and it’s the next best thing to a top-down drive on Highway 61.
The CD is almost an hour in length. You’re more than listening to it. It’s receiving an education of where this music came from. Although no original material is found here, you simply won’t care. You’re just more than happy that Walker wraps Hickory Smoke around these tracks.
The idea that Walker used what was probably his entire guitar collection on the songs was a good choice. Collectors of old instruments can study Walker’s technique and find the best sounds which capture the moment.
If you check out Walker’s website, he has a DVD on the HomeSpun Video Series entitled Blues Fingerpicking Freedom. This would be right up the alley of aspiring guitarists who want to forsake playing with a band to concentrate and hone their chops on old school blues which for some is the real American treasure. Walker may make his home in New Jersey. But his traveling down South was the best teaching he could get. Now imparting his knowledge in classrooms across the country, perhaps there’s a youngster so enraptured with the meat and mysticism of the blues, that when they’re all grown up, they’ll take a long or short drive to the Delta. Or convince their parents to take them. And if Mom and Dad are blues fanatics, than their arms won’t be too hard to twist. In this regard, Toby Walker has already done his job.
A few listens to Shake Shake Mama might just make you gas up the car and head into that part of the South where the old ghosts roam." ~Review by Gary Weeks

Shake Shake Mama

---

Little Toby Walker - Live At The Bottleneck

File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Time: 59:20
Size: 137,7 MB
Released: 2004
Styles: Acoustic Blues
Art: Front

1. I Know You Rider (4:39)
2. Main Street Rag (3:13)
3. Matchbox Blues (4:57)
4. Good Liquor (3:05)
5. Baby Who You Waiting For (4:27)
6. Things I Used To Do All Night (3:56)
7. Devil Beating On His Wife (4:02)
8. True Religion (4:03)
9. Schoolboy Blues (4:05)
10. Weak Willed And Easily Led (3:52)
11. Son Of A Mule Skinner Man (3:34)
12. Hacksaw Rag/Cincinnati Rag (3:32)
13. Glory Glory (3:14)
14. Corrina (3:55)
15. Who's Gonna Be Your Sweet Man (4:40)

Who is this solo acoustic blues musician with the Chicago styled name. Who is Little Toby Walker? Little Toby Walker is a Long Island born and bred musician who won the International Blues Foundations Blues Challenge in 2002 for Best Solo Acoustic Blues Performance.
Toby's third and newest cd captures him "Live at The Bottleneck" in Kent, England and we see that he is definitely a "natural", someone who is totally relaxed within his idiom. Toby opens with the traditional "I Know You Rider", his alternating bass and friendly voice makes you think "he sounds like someone I've heard before but I can't exactly place whom". The finger picking guitar technique is outstanding throughout the live set but especially on an instrumental which is actually a medley of two songs, "Hacksaw Rag" by Eugene Powell and "Cincinnati Flow Rag" by the Reverend Gary Davis. Toby Walker plays both a Martin and a National Steel Resophonic guitar and he is endorsed by both guitar companies.
Toby's version of the traditional "Matchbox Blues" dates back to 1927 as he learned it from a Blind Lemon Jefferson record. It's strikingly similar to the rockabilly "Matchbox" popularized by Carl Perkins but with darker more dramatic lyrics. Toby is not only a performer but he is also an educator as he enjoys discussing the origins of his material. He makes you feel that the Blues is alive and still in a metamorphosis. Other traditional tunes covered here by Toby include "True Religion", "Schoolboy Blues", "Glory, Glory" and "Corrina".
The track "Mainstreet Rag" is the first of six Toby Walker originals and it sounds like its fifty years old. Toby has the ability to sound both traditional and contemporary at the same time. Additional Toby Walker authored songs are included, they are "Devil Beatin on His Wife", "Son of a Mule Skinner Man", Who's Gonna' Be Your Sweetheart Tonight" and two of my favorites "Baby Who You Waiting For" and "Weak Willed". Also included is "Things I Used to Do All Night" a song written by the Rev. Billy C Wertz and Toby tells me as soon as he heard it he new he had to include it in his performance.
Toby performs Big Bill Broonzy's "Good Liquor" on his steel guitar and the runs are dazzling. Toby says that the music you hear as a child stays with you your whole life, this is true as I remember listening to Big Bill Broonzy and The Reverend Gary Davis. Toby Walker teaches a "Blues in The Schools" program as he is a firm believer that our young people need to hear about and learn of the origins of the blues. Before the program is over Toby has the students creating their own songs. ~Review by Richard Ludmerer

Live At The Bottleneck

---