Artist: Zack Walther Band
Album: The Westerner
Label: Tune Core
Release Date: 10.25.2019
The Westerner, from the Texas-based Zack Walther Band, is a conscious effort to blend genres. Known primarily as a country and Americana artist, singer/guitarist Walther brings blues, R&B, and rock—anything he thinks will fit. For example, the opening to the second song, “What Kind of Man,” evokes Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. Walther is an emotive powerhouse vocalist and brings fire to everything he touches. He’s been on the Texas music scene for 15 years, but this has all the makings of a breakout album. It’s one he’s been working on for a year and half, or, better said, for his 15 years.
Walther builds on his earlier Americana recordings, constructing a sonic landscape akin to the American Frontier of the late 1800s, a place of untamed territories where life was free, wild, unrestrained and at times rowdy. It could serve as the soundtrack to a Quentin Tarantino film. “The Westerner is different and it’s something that personifies my taking a risk and stepping out of my comfort zone to create a record that will, I hope, stand the test of time,” says Zack about the new disc. ”I want someone to listen to The Westerner 30 years from now and think it’s a great record, and that is what every artist wants.”
Seven of the ten songs are new,; three are drawn from previous EPs. There is one cover, a horn-drenched Sam and Dave’s “Hold On, I’m Coming.” Some of the older songs are not necessarily rendered the same way. For example “Bailey’s Light,” was a ghost story in its original form. Zack and his bandmates performed it a capella in what Zack describes as “like an oral history,” but then he re-created it into a song. “That gave ‘Bailey’s Light’ a whole new life and it went from a chain gang chant to an upbeat song,” he says. “That new arrangement called for us to re-record it.”
The album was a creative collaboration between Walther and his core trio with his drummer Matt Briggs, and Mike Atkins, who plays piano, organ, and keys in addition to singing. Briggs’ studio allowed them to record at a relaxed pace and allowed them to add some reputable guest musicians. Renowned guitarist David Grissom (Joe Ely, Storyville, John Mellencamp) played on four tracks while other guests included lap steel player Jeff Plankenhorn and vocalist Susan Gibson, among others.
The most memorable song on the disc is “What Kind of Man,” Walther’s favorite He says, “My mentor Rodney Crowell heard me sing about eight years ago, and he told me then that I have a great voice but I should go home and listen to blues singers and R&B singers and learn from them. In short, he told me to figure out who I am. …I was influenced by Otis Redding’s song, ‘These Arms of Mine,’ and ‘What Kind of Man’ has a power that people identify with the blues when I perform it,” Zack said.
So, this writer’s comparison to Screamin’ Jay Hawkins isn’t far-fetched at all. Truth be known, Walther may have built his reputation as a country singer, but this is one heck of a soul record.
—Jim Hynes
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