Seasoned blues virtuoso Joe Louis Walker has died at 75.
The revered electric blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, and producer worked with a litany of talented artists over a six-decade-spanning career, including B.B King, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, Mark Knopfler, and Steve Cropper. He rose to prominence in the Bay Area blues scene at just 16 years old.
His family confirmed his passing to Rolling Stone, revealing the cause to be a cardiac-related illness. Walker spent his final moments with his wife, Robin, and two daughters, Leena and Bernice, by his side.
The musician’s lengthy career saw him viewed as something as a musician’s musician, having garnered praise from Herbie Hancock, and Aretha Franklin, who referred to him as “The Bluesman.”
His 2015 solo album Everybody Wants a Piece, meanwhile, saw him nominated for the Best Contemporary Blues Album Grammy.
Born and raised in San Francisco, he’d been seduced by the electric guitar from an early age and was gigging regularly by his late teens. His playing style transcended the blues thanks to his intermingling in the psychedelic rock scene.
At the city’s legendary club, the Matrix, Walker played with Mississippi Fred McDowell and Muddy Waters, opened for Jimi Hendrix, and at one point shared a home with Bob Dylan’s one-time right-hand man, Mike Bloomfield.
According to music publicist Eric Alper, their union would change Walker's life, with the pair jamming long into the night and trading secrets. Bloomfield's untimely death in 1981 would ground him, and help him become more career-focused. His first solo record, Cold is the Night, arrived five years later.
Reacting to the news, modern blues great Joanne Shaw Taylor reflected on the man behind the music, who had given her career invaluable support.
Whether I was a complete naive novice or a more experienced artist, he always treated me with bountiful kindness, respect, and encouragement
Joanne Shaw Taylor
“Tremendously saddened to hear that Joe Louis Walker has passed away,” she writes on Facebook. “As well as being a blues legend, he was an incredibly kind and generous man. I first meet Joe when I was only 17, and we crossed paths throughout my career, but whether I was a complete naive novice or a more experienced artist, he always treated me with bountiful kindness, respect, and encouragement. I am so grateful to you sir. Rest well.”
On X, Alper said: “Rest in peace to blues legend Joe Louis Walker, a true musician’s musician whose guitar spoke volumes. From gospel tents to Grammy nods, his restless soul gave the blues new shape for over four decades.”
In a separate blog post charting his career highlights, he added that “even at 75, Walker played like a man who still had something new to say.
“Joe Louis Walker kept the blues alive and curious. And in a genre rooted in emotion, that kind of musical honesty is the rarest treasure of all.”
Speaking ahead of the release of Everybody Wants a Piece, Walker ruminated on the career he'd forged and what legacy he'd be leaving behind him.
“Sometimes I feel I’ve learned more from my failures than from my success,” he said. “But that’s made me stronger and more adventurous. And helped me create my own style. I’d like to think that when someone puts on one of my records they would know from the first notes, ‘That’s Joe Louis Walker.’”
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