Phillip Walker - Bottom Of The Top (1973)

2018-10-16T12:24:57Z

Phillip Walker - Bottom Of The Top (1973)


A1 	I Can't Lose (With The Stuff I Lose) 	
A2 	Tin Pan Alley 	
A3 	Hello Central 	
A4 	Hello, My Darling 	
A5 	Laughing & Clowning 	
B1 	Crazy Girl 	
B2 	It's All In Your Mind 	
B3 	The Bottom Of The Top 	
B4 	Hey, Hey, Baby's Gone 	
B5 	Crying Time

Phillip Walker - Guitar, Vocals 
Chops Anthony - Trumpet
Dennis Brown - Guitar (Steel)
Sammie Coleman - Trumpet
Samuel Cross - Sax (Baritone)
Nathaniel Dove - Keyboards
Lacy Freeman - Sax (Tenor) 
Curtis Johnson - Bass
Charles Jones - Bass
David Li - Organ, Sax (Tenor) 
Glenway McTeer - Drums
Joel Peskin - Sax (Alto)
Ted Reynolds - Keyboards
Johnny Tucker - Drums
James Vaughn - Keyboards 
Dennis Walker - Bass
Ian Walker - Vocals 
Ike Williams - Trumpet
Arthur Woods - Keyboards

There weren't many blues albums issued during the early '70s that hit harder than this one. First out on the short-lived Playboy logo, the set firmly established Walker as a blistering axeman sporting enduring Gulf Coast roots despite his adopted L.A. homebase. Of all the times he's cut the rocking "Hello My Darling," this is indeed the hottest, while his funky, horn-driven revival of Lester Williams's "I Can't Lose (With the Stuff I Lose)" and his own R&B-drenched "It's All in Your Mind" are irresistible. After-hours renditions of Sam Cooke's "Laughing & Clowning" and Long John Hunter's "Crazy Girl" are striking vehicles for Walker's twisting, turning guitar riffs and impassioned vocal delivery. ---Bill Dahl, AllMusic Review

Born February 11, 1937 near Lake Charles, Louisiana, in the small town of Welsh, Phillip Walker’s earliest musical influences came via the Cajun and Creole rhythms he heard as a youngster. A second cousin to Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and huge admirer of T-Bone Walker, Phillip began making a name for himself in the early 1950s with his first recording session backing pianist Roscoe Gordon. At the age of 16, Walker left home to tour with Zydeco king Clifton Chenier (who incidentally gave the young fledgling Walker his first bona fide guitar) and never looked back.

After relocating to Los Angeles in 1959, Walker cut his first side as a bandleader; the storming “Hello My Darling”, produced by J.R. Fulbright for Elko Records. His first full length album didn’t appear until much later though. With the help of long-time supporter and producer Bruce Bromberg, Walker cut the excellent LP The Bottom of the Top in 1973 for Hugh Hefner’s short-lived Playboy label. Over the next three decades Walker’s musical career continued to pick up steam with numerous recording projects for HighTone, Black Top, Rounder, JSP and Alligator Records.

In 2007, Randy Chortkoff signed Phillip Walker to Delta Groove Music and released the critically acclaimed CD Going Back Home. The recording session featured the renowned guitarist going back to his roots and exploring the rich musical history of Louisiana, Texas and West Coast Blues on classic material by Lowell Fulson, Ray Charles, Lonesome Sundown, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Champion Jack Dupree and Frankie Lee Sims among others. Going Back Home was later awarded Best Album of 2007 in the New Recordings / Contemporary Blues category by the Living Blues Awards Critics’ Poll.

Label CEO Randy Chortkoff shared some of his fond remembrances of working with Phillip these last few years by stating “Phillip was a consummate gentleman and it was an absolute pleasure working with him over the years. It was a pleasure producing his last album Going Back Home. We chose the music on that album based on Phillip’s musical tastes and background. He especially enjoyed doing the Champion Jack Dupree song “Bad Blood”. It later became a standard in his live repertoire, in addition to one I wrote for him, “Lay You Down”. We also had a great time with him years ago at the Moulin Blues Festival in Holland where he performed with The Mannish Boys, and the again at Ground Zero in Clarksdale, Mississippi for our 3rd Annual Delta Groove All-Star Blues Revue. ---Delta Groove Music, jambase.com

download (mp3 @320 kbs):

yandex mediafire ulozto gett

back

Phillip Walker - Steppin' Up In Class (The Blues Collection Vol.77) [1996]

2018-05-15T14:40:09Z

Phillip Walker - Steppin' Up In Class (The Blues Collection Vol.77) [1996]


1 	What Can I Do 	2:45
2 	Port Arthur Blues 	4:38
3 	I'm Tough (Tough As I Want To Be) 	3:54
4 	A Lyin' Woman 	2:49
5 	Wondering 	3:42
6 	Think 	3:39
7 	Go Ahead And Take Her 	4:26
8 	Not The Same Man 	3:21
9 	The Blues And My Guitar 	6:05
10 	The Trace 	2:29
11 	Trouble In My Home 	2:45
12 	Bopp's Dream 	3:57
13 	Bad Luck Is Falling 	2:46
14 	If My Tears Must Fall 	3:15
15 	Steppin' Up In Class 	2:53
16 	The Train 	5:25

Despite recording somewhat sparingly since debuting as a leader in 1959 on Elko Records with the storming rocker "Hello My Darling," Louisiana-born guitarist Phillip Walker enjoys a sterling reputation as a contemporary blues guitarist with a distinctive sound honed along the Gulf Coast during the '50s. A teenaged Walker picked up his early licks around Port Arthur, Texas from the likes of Gatemouth Brown, Long John Hunter, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Lonnie "Guitar Junior" Brooks. Zydeco king Clifton Chenier hired Walker in 1953 as his guitarist, a post he held for three-and-a-half years. In 1959, Walker moved to Los Angeles, waxing "Hello My Darling" for producer J.R. Fulbright (a song he's revived several times since, most effectively for the short-lived Playboy logo). Scattered 45s emerged during the '60s, but it wasn't until he joined forces with young producer Bruce Bromberg in 1969 that Walker began to get a studio foothold. Their impressive work together resulted in a 1973 album for Playboy (reissued by HighTone in 1989), The Bottom of the Top, that remains Walker's finest to date.

Walker cut a fine follow-up set for Bromberg's Joliet label, Someday You'll Have These Blues, that showcased his tough Texas guitar style (it was later reissued by Alligator). Sets for Rounder and HighTone were high points of the 1980s for the guitarist, and 1994's Big Blues from Texas (reissued in 1999) continued his string of worthy material. His 1995 set for Black Top, Working Girl Blues, shows Walker at peak operating power, combining attractively contrasting tracks waxed in New Orleans and Los Angeles. I Got a Sweet Tooth followed in 1998, and displayed no letdown in quality or power. Walker got together with fellow blues legends Lonnie Brooks and Long John Hunter in 1999 to record Lone Star Shootout for Alligator. Walker is featured as lead vocalist on four tracks and backs the others on the rest of the record. In the fall of 2002, a live recording of a spring concert was released on M.C. Records. ---Bill Dahl, allmusic.com

download (mp3 @320 kbs):

yandex mediafire uloz.to gett my-files.ru

back