Billy Walton Band

Billy Walton was once a member of the Asbury Dukes alongside Southside Johnny and you can most definitely hear some of their jazz tinged horn sound on this album.
That having been said, Billy Walton is a quite excellent guitarist and with William Paris on bass and Johnny D’Angelo on drums this is a fine slice of R&B.

The whole album has a punch and a sense of fun about it from the opening track ‘Save The Last Dance’ with swinging horns and stirring keys through to the countrified Blues of ‘Days Like These’ with Jack Gist’s harmonica wailing.
I’ve seen Billy Walton live a few times and he always makes you feel involved in the music but here he has taken that to a more personal place and definitely made his best album yet.

One of my personal favourite tracks is Noah Lewis’s ‘Minglewood’ with his harsh guitar riff against superb keys and his hard-edged vocals – very Walter Trout – as well as a superb guitar solo.

Most of the songs are written by Billy Walton or William Parris or John Faye or combinations of the three and there isn’t a bad track here but the treatment of John Fogerty’s ‘Green River’ is stunning. Very different to CCR but somehow still redolent of that swamp sound – the horns are simply fabulous (great arrangement by Sean Marks).

There is a place for R&B bands like the Billy Walton band – the music is honest and really well played as well as having a great sense of the person about it. Bloody good album.