{"id":5994,"date":"2015-10-01T10:37:37","date_gmt":"2015-10-01T15:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=5994"},"modified":"2015-10-01T10:37:37","modified_gmt":"2015-10-01T15:37:37","slug":"the-resurgence-of-wee-willie-walker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=5994","title":{"rendered":"The Resurgence of Wee Willie Walker"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Example\"
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\nWee Willie Walker, then and now<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Example\"
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\"Example\"
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Listen\/Download – Wee Willie Walker (feat Curtis Salgado) – Help!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download – Wee Willie Walker – Ticket To Ride<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Greetings all.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The end of the week is here, so I will remind you once again that the Funky16Corners Radio Show<\/strong> takes to the airwaves of the interwebs each and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio<\/a><\/strong>. If you can’t be there at airtime, you can subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the TuneIn app, or grab yourself an MP3 right here at the blog.<\/p>\n

I am going to break with tradition today and do something I don’t normally do, which is take the time to hype a new release.<\/p>\n

What made me do this, is the release of an outstanding comeback album by Wee Willie Walker.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I first came upon Walker’s music back in the day when I unearthed his sole Goldwax 45, a blinding cover of the Beatles<\/strong> ‘Ticket To Ride’.<\/p>\n

Having been in the habit of grabbing any and all Goldwax ish found in the field, I was thrilled times two, first by putting another notch in my Goldwax discography, and second (but really “first”) finding a killer soul 45 formy play box, where it has held a position of honor for years.<\/p>\n

Walker got his start singing gospel with the Redemption Harmonizers<\/strong> (alongside songwriter Roosevelt Jamison*<\/strong>), he relocated from his home base in Minnesota to Memphis, where he hooked up with the Goldwax label.<\/p>\n

Quinton Claunch<\/strong> recorded a bunch of sides on Walker, but only one ever came out on Goldwax, a few others being leased to Checker in the 60s. Walker went on to record for a variety of labels in the 70s.<\/p>\n

His new album, ‘If Nothing Ever Changes’ is an outstanding mix of new songs and well chosen covers (including numbers by Eddie Hinton, the Southside Movement<\/strong> and Calvin Arnold<\/strong>, as well as a wonderful reworking of John Conlee’s<\/strong> old country hit ‘I Don’t Remember Loving You’), with Walker, still in fine voice and backed by an excellent band.<\/p>\n

The overall feel is less retro-soul, than a modern offering by a singer with deep roots in the classic era.<\/p>\n

The playing and production are first rate, and while the album is filed under ‘blues’, this is a soul outing through and through, with Walker able to wail like back in the day, as well as deliver\u00a0depth in the quieter moments.<\/p>\n

I first posted Walker’s version of ‘Ticket to Ride’ back in 2008, and I’m reposting it today alongside another Beatles cover from the new album, a take on ‘Help!’ in a duet with Curtis Salgado.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Walker and Salgado take the song at a slower pace, stirring in bits of gospel and deep southern soul.<\/p>\n

‘If Nothing Ever Changes’ was released by the non-profit Little Village Foundation<\/a><\/strong>, and you can pick it up in iTunes<\/a><\/strong>, or at Amazon.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

I dig it a lot, and I hope you do too.<\/p>\n

See you all on Monday.<\/p>\n

Keep the faith<\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Example\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong> \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

*Composer of ‘That’s How Strong My Love Is’<\/strong><\/p>\n

____________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!<\/strong> The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.<\/strong> They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).<\/strong> Click here to go to the ordering page.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Example\"<\/strong><\/a> \"Example\"<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wee Willie Walker, then and now Listen\/Download – Wee Willie Walker (feat Curtis Salgado) – Help! Listen\/Download – Wee Willie Walker – Ticket To Ride Greetings all. The end of the week is here, so I will remind you once again that the Funky16Corners Radio Show takes to the airwaves of the interwebs each and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[58,145,14,100,192,12,18],"tags":[166,184,164],"class_list":["post-5994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cover-songs","category-deep-soul","category-funky16corners","category-memphis","category-new-ish","category-soul","category-soul-45","tag-funky16corners","tag-memphis","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-1yG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5994"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5999,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5994\/revisions\/5999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}