Robert "Bilbo" Walker Jukes
Grand Emporium
July 30, 1999

Review by Paul "El Dormido" Taylor

There is a shot of Robert "Bilbo" Walker included in the photo exhibition "State of the Blues: the Living Legacy of the Delta", by Jeff Dunas, in the Changing Gallery of the Jazz Museum in K.C.'s 18th & Vine Heritage District. Robert is shown playing at Bobo's Juke Joint in Bobo, MS.

Actually Bobo's was Thompson grocery, where Robert started playing music in the 1950's. You can check out Bill Steber's Blues Highway on the Web at http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue9901/blueindex.htm for a photo of local patrons jukin' at Thompson's and some background on Robert.

Sterber goes on to say, "Walker would set up his equipment in the back of the store between the poker machines and shelves of groceries and the little shotgun-shack store would be transformed into a rollicking juke joint, often until the pre-dawn hours, in much the same way rural homes and businesses became the social centers of plantation life throughout the 19th and 20th centuries."

It burned down in 1996. Robert was apt to drive up in his white RV unannounced, pull in some of his friends to play with, like Sam Carr (who is also shown in the Dunas photo at the Jazz Museum exhibition), and set up shop 2 or 3 nights running.

Now the thing is, this is not just an historical, museum exhibition type thing, far removed from KC, since Robert "Bilbo" Walker showed up at the Grand Emporium Friday, July 30, and gave the crowd a taste of that juke joint Blues.

Robert is in the midst of a 26 date road trip. And, yes, that white RV was parked out in front of the GE Friday. He's moving on to places in Osage Beach, St. Louis, and Illinois for dates that include Buddy Guy's Legends. He will also be performing at Sarah's Kitchen during the Sunflower Blues and Gospel Festival In Clarksdale August 13-14.

Since Robert lives in Bakersfield, CA, now, preferring the agrarian life, he's carrying a band of California musicians with him. Al Garrett, a retired Los Angeles Sheriff who grew up in Compton, fills the guitar/vocal duties when Robert isn't on the band stand. Robert and Al are Fedora Records labelmates. Alonso "Mousey" handles the drum duties, and Curtis "Lightning" Brown fills out the rhythm section on bass.

Friday night's show opened up with Al leading Mouse and Lightning through Blues standards like "Further On Down the Road", "The Thrill is Gone", and "Dust My Broom". Al sings in a high, bluesy voice, and, on a very hot night, the band turns the thermostat to cool Blue. It's a nice, mellow Blues that sets the mood.

Which Robert "Bilbo" Walker immediately turns around as soon as he gets on stage and launches into his instrumental version of "Got My Mojo Working". Robert opens it up with a stinging guitar attack and a regal demeanor. He stands tall and thin, impassively driving that raucous, juke joint sound through the night. And the crowd immediately responded, jumping up and dancing.

Robert handles Muddy Water's tune with his style, puts his stamp on it and makes it his own, chorus after chorus.

And Robert doesn't remain all that impassive. He uses the whammy bar, goes raucous, rude, raw and rowdy, but it's strictly the Blues. His guitar pyrotechnics spiral out from those endless nights at juke joints and house parties. He knows how to party, and the crowd appreciates it. The midtown crowd is rising up, exhorting him on, and most of all, dancing.

He steps to the mic and takes on Howlin Wolf. He does "Easy Baby" with that cranking Blues break. He honors Bakersfield by doing some country yodeling on "The Wild Side Of Life"! Each song he makes his own. He gives an authentic reading to Chuck Berry's "Memphis". He's been called "Chuck Berry, Jr." and shows why with medley switching back and forth between "Johnny B. Goode" and "Little Queenie". He even duck walks across the stage and brings the crowd to its feet!

He does a star turn on Freddie King's "Hideaway" to close out his second set. He tears off his guitar, holds it in his outstretched hand, dancing with it, an emblem of the juke party like a pretty woman that's picked him out for the night.. He sustains a repeated 2-note figure bar after bar, escorting his guitar around the stage, bringing the dancing crowd to a frenzy.

Now all this is while the man is in pain. I greeted him on my way out and he was obviously suffering. He explained he had a hernia act up on him and it was really wearing him down. But you couldn't tell it from the audience pov. And that's the Bluesman in him, carrying on not like 'the show must go on', but carrying on because it's the time and the place to carry on!

He was also missing his Mississippi cohorts who drive him and lift him up, get him into that juke joint fervor with him. But, again, you wouldn't know it from anywhere in the room given the exhortations coming from the crowd and the enthusiastic slow drag the dancers were doing, rubbing latitudinally and longitudinally together as they were.

If you missed the show, Robert has 2 recordings out. There is a 1997 release on Rooster Records, "Promised Land" (ROOSTER BLUES 2632; CD:049998263226 ) which includes backing from bassist David "Pecan" Porter and drummer Sam Carr with Frank Frost playing organ on three tracks. This CD made a lot of top of the Blues lists that year. Then there is "Rompin' & Stompin'", released in 1998 on Fedora Records (FCD 5005). Al Garrett also has a release on Fedora, "Out of Bad Luck", (Fedora Records - FCD 5010).

--Paul "El Dormido" Taylor