
David T. Walker is one of the planet’s smoothest, mellowest guitarists. His feathery touch and melodic gracefulness made the Tulsa, Oklahoma-born musician one of the 20th century’s most in-demand session players. He’s recorded and performed with dozens of big names, including Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Jackson 5, Marlena Shaw, Bobbi Humphrey, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and Quincy Jones. Walker also played in the short-lived supergroup Afrique, whose lone LP, 1973’s Soul Makossa, is a serious funk bomb, and in Paul Humphrey & His Cool Aid Chemists. So, even if you’ve never checked one of Walker’s 15 solo albums, you’ve undoubtedly heard his delicious licks somewhere.
I’ve only heard four of DTW’s LPs, but of those, Plum Happy hits the sweetest spot. My curiosity in Walker was piqued via the main sample in hip-hop group People Under The Stairs’ 2002 classic, “Acid Raindrops”: i.e., his unbelievably chill cover of Bob Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay.” Incidentally, I’d love to know if Bob ever heard Walker’s transformation of his moody 1969 hit ballad into paradisiacal instrumental bliss, blessed by brisk congas and DTW’s liquid-gold guitar filigrees. It’s become my go-to walking-in-summer-sunshine jam, and it’s yet more proof that Walker is a master of interpreting other musicians’ compositions.
But that doesn’t mean the man can’t write his own tunes. Plum Happy boasts five originals, and they reveal the sharp skills that come standard with a first-call studio wiz. Right from jump, “Doo Doo” offers a splurge of extroverted funk, like a wired Dennis Coffey joint, but with less fuzz and distortion. The title track is a busy, complex jazz number that recalls Phil Upchurch‘s contemporaneous work for Cadet and Blue Thumb Records. “Blues For My Father” brings solid electric blues showcasing Walker’s fluid, rhythmic style while “Listen To The Sun”‘s jaunty, ornate soul jazz evokes the magnificent Gábor Szabó.
As for the remaining covers, DTW secularizes the Edwin Hawkins Singers’ 1969 gospel-pop hit into a buoyant blues mood-elevator, as he extravagantly ladles on the wah-wah. For “Come Together,” John Lennon’s groovy surrealism gets some gilded adornment with fuzz-tone guitar conspiring with Walker’s crystalline timbre and frilly ornamentation. You can tell the band—John Barnes (piano), Al Edmond (drums), Richard Waters (timbales), Buzz Cooper (tambourine, percussion), Tracy Wright (bass)—really dig extemporizing on the Beatles’ funkiest song. The album ends with “Love Vibrations,” speedy funk rock that’ll get your pulse pounding, stat. The vivacious female backing vocals really send this hippy-friendly heater over the top. It’s one helluva climax.
Scandalously out of print on vinyl since 1970, Plum Happy deserves a reissue. Get to work on that, music industry! -Buckley Mayfield
Located in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood, Jive Time is always looking to buy your unwanted records (provided they are in good condition) or offer credit for trade. We also buy record collections.