One of the great stories to emerge from the world of blues and vintage soul music in recent years is the rediscovery and career renaissance of the great Wee Willie Walker. The final chapter in the life of Willie Earl Walker ended with his death on November 19, 2019, at his home in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He was 77 years old and had finished recording his final album just days earlier. That album, entitled Not In My Lifetime, finds this consummate soul singer backed by The Anthony Paule Soul Orchestra. The road Walker took to the July 16^th, 2021, release of this fine album was a circuitous one. It was a journey that had him coming up just short of the finish line.

Walker began his time on this planet on December 21, 1941, in Hernando, Mississippi. He grew up in nearby Memphis, where the nickname “Wee” began following him around due to his diminutive stature. 

Like so many soul singers of the era, Walker got his start in the world of gospel music. As early as his mid-teens Walker found work with the group The Redemptive Harmonizers. There is even an early publicity photo of the 15- year-old sporting a pencil thin moustache…which was also pencil drawn. With Walker in tow the Harmonizers passed through Saint Paul, Minnesota. He found the twin cities to his liking and remained a permanent resident.

Walker would travel back to Memphis and began a career in secular music and hooked up with Goldwax Records. The label had put out records on O.V. Wright, Spencer Wiggins and, perhaps most notably, James Carr among others. Walker had only moderate success at Goldwax. This likely had as much to do with the distribution (or lack of) from that label. However, the sides he did wax were consistently solid, even if too few heard them.

Walker returned to Minneapolis where he worked outside of the music industry.  He would sing in public only occasionally. He did record three albums in the early part of this century with the twin cities-based band, The Butanes to very little fan fair.

In 2014, after decades of being pushed to the side of the music world, Rick Estrin found Walker on a blues cruise, of all places. Walker was a paying customer who was being dissed by the pro jammers who didn’t know who he was. How perfect is that? Estrin recognized Walker of course and the two men struck up a friendship.

Estrin got Walker into Chris “Kid” Andersen’s Greaseland Studios. In 2015, they released an absolute masterpiece that was put out on Jim Pugh’s Little Village Foundation label, If Nothing Ever Changes.

In 2016, Andersen followed that up with a CD which featured Walker fronting his Greaseland All-Stars on a live set, entitled Live! Notodden Blues Festival which was recorded at that great annual event in Norway. It is a stunning live performance.

By this time Walker had begun traveling the festival circuit with guitarist Anthony Paule and his band, where they were a big hit. These travels included bookings on the international festival circuit and included featured performances at the prestigious Porretta Soul Festival in Italy.

After honing their chops on stages all over the world, Wee Willie Walker and The Anthony Paule Soul Orchestra had also become a formidable recording outfit as well. Their 2017 album After A While was a testament to that fact.

On July 16, 2021, Not In My Lifetime was released. Walker, after all these years, showed that he was still at the top of his game. His performances here leave no doubt that he was a soul singer who was in a class by himself. As for guitarist Anthony Paule, he sounded like he had found the perfect vehicle for his talents. He, along with Christine Vitale, lead a formidable songwriting team.

As far as the Anthony Paule Soul Orchestra is concerned, they are an eight piece “little, big band” which includes a four-piece horn section and the wonderful keyboard work of Tony Lufrano who employs a piano, a Wurlitzer or a B3 depending on the song. The use of three backup singers fills out the soundscape to an even greater degree, helping to create a lush bed of music where Walker can really stretch out and share with us the humanity that lives in his voice.

The East Bay gospel group The Sons of the Soul Revivers make a marvelous contribution to an original tune entitled I’m Just Like You.

Not In My Lifetime is proof that deep, vintage soul music can, in the right hands, sound fresh and exciting. Whoever said that there are no second acts in life hadn’t heard of the saga of the great Willie Walker. That saga came to an end in the fall of 2019. However, it continued in a big way here on this CD. Not In My Lifetime by Wee Willie Walker and The Anthony Paule Soul Orchestra gives us that much needed soul massage that makes life worth living.

-  David Mac