JUNE 2009 ONLINE EDITORIALS

Bobby Walker - Git It

album cover

By Nathan Harper

The blues. Bobby Walker’s got ‘em for real, and you know it when you hear him sing. Grizzled but tuneful, the skilled multi-instrumentalist’s voice nicely ties Git It together as he and his backing band pick, slide and glide through ten tracks of gospel, blues, jazz and soul.

An enjoyable summer afternoon record, Git It is a collection of original songs and familiar covers, with “CC Rider” standing out amongst the latter. The guitar sound on the record recalls a time shortly after amps were invented, and along with a generous amount of organ and the occasional burst of horns, this album successfully evokes early blues and rock’n’roll without sounding dated.

Everyone involved is obviously skilled, and if anything, they play things a little too straight. Listening to Walker, you get the feeling that he could play you any old blues song and probably has at least one good story about Delbert McClinton. That said, because of the improvisational nature of blues music, he also seems limited by the studio album as means for artistic conveyance – the title track is all intertwining horn lines and speedy bass work, and though it ends abruptly, it feels like it could just go on forever, in a good way. More than likely, had this same group of people met in Walker’s living room instead of a studio they still would have played these same songs - but they would have jammed them, and playing the kind of music Walker does, it would have made an enjoyable record more so.
www.bobbywalkermusic.com