EARLVILLE – The Earlville Opera House opens its 40th Anniversary Season with the Grammy-winning blues of the Joe Louis Walker Band on Saturday at 8 p.m. This past December Joe Louis Walker was nominated for 3 Blues Music Awards: B.B King Entertainer of the Year, Contemporary Blues Male Artist of the Year, and Best Instrumentalist – Guitar. This performance is generously sponsored by WAER-FM.

Joe Louis Walker grew up in the Fillmore district of San Francisco in the late fifties and early sixties. His influences include early years playing with Lightnin’ Hopkins, Fred McDowell, Magic Sam and Earl “Zebedee” Hooker. He was part of the musical psychedelic scene. “I knew them all. Carlos Santana and the guys from the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead as well as Sly Stone and Larry Graham. My roommate at the time was Mike Bloomfield, fresh from introducing Bob Dylan to the electric guitar.”

Recently voted Most Outstanding Guitarist by Living Blues critics, Joe Louis Walker is recognized for his original blues and for his passion that has revolutionized the art of the electric guitar. In his 2008 review for Honest Tune, Fred Adams notes: “It’s been said that only B.B. King has taken the blues further, and to more destinations, than Walker. With the release of Witness to the Blues, Walker proves to be just as vital as ever, continuing to redefine blues in the 21st century, just as he has throughout the past four decades.”