From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Thu Jun 27, 2002  1:14 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Johnny "Big Moose" Walker
 
JOHNNY "BIG MOOSE" WALKER

Born 27 June 1927, Stoneville, Mississippi
Died 2 December 1999, Chicago, Illinois

Singer / keyboard player. Although he was a Chicago blues stalwart through
three decades, Johnny (Big Moose) Walker preferred to reminisce about his
youthful experiences in the south playing with Elmore James, Sonny Boy
Williamson and Earl Hooker.
Mr. Walker was born, of partly native-American stock, in Stoneville, near
Greenville, MS, and as a boy learned to play the organ in the local church,
like his father before him. In his twenties he played piano in bands led by
the drummer Cleanhead Love and the Memphis-based bass player Tuff Green,
then toured with Elmore James and Sonny Boy Williamson before serving in
the U.S. Army in Korea 1953-55. He later worked on the west coast with
Lowell Fulson, in Greenville with Ike Turner and in Chicago with Earl Hooker,
Howlin' Wolf (Chester Burnett), Johnny Littlejohn (John Funchess) and
many others.
Meanwhile he recorded several more or less obscure singles under variants
of his name such as Moose John or Big Moose. "I got the name because of
the length of my hair," he explained. "People said I looked like a moose."
In 1960s Chicago he spent time with fellow pianists Sunnyland Slim and
Johnny Jones and toured with Otis Rush and Muddy Waters playing bass
- a skill he had picked up while with Ikke Turner and Howlin' Wolf. He then
rejoined Earl Hooker, playing on his 1969 Bluesway album ' Don't Have To
Worry'. Bluesway producer Ed Michel also featured him on his own album,
'Rambling Woman' and hired him for the singer Andrew "Big Voice" Odom's
'Farther on Down the Road' as well as a joint effort by John Lee Hooker and
Earl Hooker 'If You Miss 'Im, I Got 'Im'. Recalling the session with Earl and
John Lee Hooker Mr. Michel commented "Walker was to that band what Otis
Spann was to Muddy Waters."
In the 1970s and '80s Moose played with the singer-guitarists Jimmy Dawkins,
Mighty Joe Young, Son Seals and Johnny Littlejohn, whom he played with on
and off for almost fifty years, the two having known each other since their
childhoods in Mississippi. "I never wanted to be a bandleader or have a big
name," he claimed. "I just like to make it sound good if I can."
He was featured in Alligator Records' showcase of a series of albums titled
Living Chicago Blues and made further albums of his own in the US and
Europe, often featuring his favourite compositions 'Footrace' and 'Moose on
the Loose'. Johnny toured Europe with the 1979 Chicago Blues Festival and
travelled to Canada and New Zealand, settling in to residency in Montreal
for several years, playing and living the party life.
With his long gray hair, white beard and exuberant manner he was an
arresting figure and Maori audiences particularly took to him. Back in
Chicago he could be found playing often solo or with his regular drummer
Chris Moss at the North Side blues club, Kingston Mines or smaller venues
on the South Side such as Palmer's Lounge or the Soul Queen Restaurant.

(Based on an article in The Guardian by Tony Russell)

Recommended listening:
CD : Mellow Down Easy (Chrisly)
LP : Rambling Woman (Bluesway, 1969). Includes the best version of "Footrace".