Thirty years may have elapsed since his
Savoy Brown pomp, but you wouldn't know it from
Walking Underwater. With the
Walker lungs as loud and leathern as ever, and a band that blisters as brutally as the
Brown ever did,
Walking Underwater is one of those albums that you hear for the first time, and it immediately transports you back to a time when all British blues records were capable of sounding this good. The chiming bluster of the opening "Little Susie and Mr Tight" is the fanfare that draws you in, but ten
Walker band originals don't let up for a moment, whether pumping through the downbeat shuffle of "I Can Make It on My Own," lamenting the piano-led passion of the title track, or frolicking across "Black Steel Blues" -- and a word here for guitarist
Jim Lewis; if you've ever wondered what
Paul Kossoff would have sounded like if he was really
Robin Trower, "Walking Underwater" and "Weep No More" will answer your question. New blues albums are ten a penny these days. But truly great ones have been at a premium since the mid-'70s went out of fashion.
Walking Underwater is the album we've been waiting for since then.