Back On The Scene

According to the liner notes — which offer a reasonable and lengthy biography of Walker, but only one paragraph about the music on this disc — these tracks, recorded in Texas in 1966, were released by Jet Stream as an album titled Home Cooking. Walker's post-'50s recordings don't get much attention, but these are pretty good tunes, with Walker in decent instrumental and vocal shape, offering some admirably slashing guitar licks. The recording fidelity isn't so hot, with a hollow, echoed quality, though actually that lends an atmospheric touch that's not displeasing. After all, at least it's not too slick. The sidemen aren't well-known (and, in fact, the drummer is listed as "unknown"), but they swing okay, even if they're on the raw side. This is a little more R&B/rock-tinged than Walker records from previous decades (occasionally an organ is heard), but he doesn't sound ill at ease with that approach. There's a good mixture of upbeat, rollicking numbers and slower, more morose ones (such as "Please Come Back to Me") less indebted to his jump blues roots. So it's not at all a bad addition to the library if you're a Walker fan, even if it's imperfect.