Bman's Blues Report

I just received the new release, Waiting On Daylight from Bart Walker and it's really strong! Walker, a new artist with Ruf has put together a package of great material that really nicely displays his skills and a performer. Opening with It's All Good , Walker wastes no time getting on the slide. This track reminds me a lot in rhythm to Stealin' Watermelons, a great Elvin Bishop track with a bit of funk and a bit of country in the rock. Walker is a modern slide player with southern influences sounding a lot more like Derek Trucks than Elmore James but really playing with his own guitar voice. Cool track. Black Clouds opens with a swampy bass riff by Dave Smith and then followed by grinding guitar riffs along the lines of Mule.Steve Potts has a good had with the drums and this blues rocker sets a firm footing. Walker is certainly no stranger to the guitar ripping gret guitar riffs throughout the track and his voice is well suited for the band. Took It Like A Man is a rock...

Ruf Records Signs Blues Guitar Blaster Bart Walker & Will Release His Label Debut CD, Waiting on Daylight , On March 12 New Album Produced by Multi Grammy-Winner Jim Gaines ATLANTA, GA – Ruf Records announces the signing of Nashville-based blues guitarist/singer Bart Walker and will release his label debut CD, Waiting on Daylight , on March 12. The new album was produced and engineered by multi Grammy-winner Jim Gaines and recorded at his Bessie Blue Studio in Stantonville, Tennessee. Backing Walker on Waiting on Daylight are all-star Memphis session players Steve Potts (drums), Dave Smith (bass) and Rick Steff (keyboards), along with special guest Dave Cohen on organ. The 11 tracks on Waiting on Daylight feature nine new songs written by Walker and such other Nashville notables as Grammy-winner Gary Nicholson and Pat McLaughlin, plus blazing covers of J. B. Hutto’s “Hip Shake It,” and the Allman Brothers Band classic, “Whippin’ Post,” ...

Bart Walker’s debut, Who I Am, is a portrait of the Nashville-based guitar and vocal powerhouse as a dreamer, a fan, a survivor, a creative dynamo and, most of all, a one-man argument for the continued vitality and emotional heat of the blues. A born virtuoso who began playing and singing at age four, Walker and his band — which includes ex-Stevie Ray Vaughan keyboardist Reese Wynans — make his original plucked-from-life tunes sound like classics, delivered with the same incendiary energy as the live performances that have won them a growing following in the South and Midwest. With the release of Who I Am and Walker’s continuing on-stage exposure as country star Bo Bice’s six-string right-hand man, Walker is ready to claim his place as a bold young torchbearer in the national and international blues scene, with his own distinctive and gritty guitar sound and a dynamic voice dappled with honey and gravel. “I truly and deeply love what I do,” he says, “This...

John Lee Hooker once said 'the blues tells a story. Every line of the blues has a meaning.' Lucky for us, talented musicians still feel the need to tell that story. And it’s even luckier for us that one of these musicians is Nashville-based up and coming blues man, Bart Walker. Bart started honing his guitar skills at the ripe “old” age of four, while growing up in Tennessee. Along the way, he became an accomplished musician on a variety of instruments including the mandolin, banjo, dobro, bass, saxophone, fiddle and drums. His accomplishments include winning a variety of bluegrass competitions in his youth, a full scholarship from Vanderbilt's Blair School of Music to study voice in high school, being chosen as a vocalist in the Governor’s School for the Arts, as well as being selected by a Tennessee panel of judges for excellence for jazz band. After graduating high school, he was recruited into the army national guard as a musician. He attended Austin Peay State Univer...