Blues Revue - Toby Walker's 'Lost and Found'
_Review by Kay Cordtz - Blues Revue Feb/March 2010
When you’ve been singing and playing as long as Toby Walker has, fans start to record your shows. And while many of those recordings likely deserve to be lost in a box somewhere, occasionally someone captures a gem. Walker finally listened to some of these live recordings, and he found enough great performances for an excellent collection. The 15 tracks on Lost & Found span 17 years and were taped by fans and colleagues at venues around Long Island, where Walker lived and worked for many years, and at a few stops on his tours. Together, the tracks present an energetic entertainer with lightning-fast fingers, talented friends, and the gift of gab. Anyone who’s attended Walker’s live shows knows he’s skilled as both a musician and a storyteller. There’s a taste of his audience banter here, but this disc emphasizes his music. More than half the songs were recorded at radio station WUSB in Stony Brook, New York, where Walker’s still a favorite son. The groovy “Toby’s Boogie Woogie” from 1991 is elevated by smoking harmonica courtesy of another Long Island musician, Ken Korb. Korb also contributes willing harp and nervy washboard to the dazzling “Bird Nest Bound,” which delights with Walker’s hot licks and passionate vocal.
Several songs, including my personal favorite, “Who’s Gonna Be Your Sweet Man,” were recorded by a fan with a hand-held digital recorder during Walker’s first tour of England in 2003. The results are amazingly sharp and have the true-to-life feel of an unplanned live recording, complete with enthusiastic audience reaction. Other venues include a Long Island house party (also in 2003) and venues in Riverhead, New York, and Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. The Riverhead show produced a spooky “Spoonful,” with George Christ on harmonica and Mike DeGeronimo on snare drum. Last year at Steel City Coffee House in Phoenixville, Walker cut loose with a brilliant turn on “I Know You Rider,” the most recent of this great collection of bootleg recordings
.“Lost and Found” may be purchased from CD Baby.
When you’ve been singing and playing as long as Toby Walker has, fans start to record your shows. And while many of those recordings likely deserve to be lost in a box somewhere, occasionally someone captures a gem. Walker finally listened to some of these live recordings, and he found enough great performances for an excellent collection. The 15 tracks on Lost & Found span 17 years and were taped by fans and colleagues at venues around Long Island, where Walker lived and worked for many years, and at a few stops on his tours. Together, the tracks present an energetic entertainer with lightning-fast fingers, talented friends, and the gift of gab. Anyone who’s attended Walker’s live shows knows he’s skilled as both a musician and a storyteller. There’s a taste of his audience banter here, but this disc emphasizes his music. More than half the songs were recorded at radio station WUSB in Stony Brook, New York, where Walker’s still a favorite son. The groovy “Toby’s Boogie Woogie” from 1991 is elevated by smoking harmonica courtesy of another Long Island musician, Ken Korb. Korb also contributes willing harp and nervy washboard to the dazzling “Bird Nest Bound,” which delights with Walker’s hot licks and passionate vocal.
Several songs, including my personal favorite, “Who’s Gonna Be Your Sweet Man,” were recorded by a fan with a hand-held digital recorder during Walker’s first tour of England in 2003. The results are amazingly sharp and have the true-to-life feel of an unplanned live recording, complete with enthusiastic audience reaction. Other venues include a Long Island house party (also in 2003) and venues in Riverhead, New York, and Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. The Riverhead show produced a spooky “Spoonful,” with George Christ on harmonica and Mike DeGeronimo on snare drum. Last year at Steel City Coffee House in Phoenixville, Walker cut loose with a brilliant turn on “I Know You Rider,” the most recent of this great collection of bootleg recordings
.“Lost and Found” may be purchased from CD Baby.