Hard Luck Café: Toby Walker

Toby Walker (https://toby-walker-official-site.weebly.com) will be the featured artist at the monthly Hard Luck Café series co-presented by the Folk Music Society of Huntington and the Cinema Arts Centre (423 Park Avenue, Huntington) in the Cinema’s Sky Room on Wednesday, May 17, from 7-10 p.m. An open mic precedes the concert.

Tickets are $25 ($20 for Cinema Arts Centre/FMSH members) and can be purchased online at https://cinemaartscentre.org or at the Cinema Arts Centre box office now through the evening of the event.

Internationally and nationally acclaimed Toby Walker has been hailed as an award-winning, roots music fingerstyle guitar virtuoso and songwriter who has toured the US, the United Kingdom, Canada and Europe. Blending the styles of blues, ragtime, country, bluegrass, old-time jazz and rock, Walker has developed his own style and as such received numerous awards, including being the 1st-place recipient of the International Blues Challenge Award in Memphis and the NY Music Award for best instrumental CD. Walker has also been inducted into the NY Blues Hall Of Fame.

Walker is a nationally recognized guitar instructor, having taught at Jorma Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch, Woody Mann’s Guitar Seminars, The Swanannoa Gathering, The New Jersey Big Guitar Camp and the Guitar Intensive in Maine. Walker also has eight instructional DVD’s on Happy Traum’s Homespun Music Instruction and has produced hundreds of instructional videos for his own website.

Toby’s passion for blues, rags, folk, and other traditional American music drove him to leave an apartment crammed full of recordings, books and instruments for the Mississippi Delta, Virginia and the Carolinas, where he tracked down some of the more obscure — but immensely talented — music makers of an earlier era. He learned directly from Eugene Powell, James “Son” Thomas, Etta Baker, and R.L Burnside, among others.

“If he doesn’t get them with his phenomenal guitar playing or catchy songs, he gets them with his wonderful stories. True entertainers have an engaging spirit that puts a smile on your face. Arlo Guthrie has it. David Bromberg has it. And so does Toby. “
          – John Platt – WFUV

“Flat out… you have to hear this great musician… I’m blown away.”
          – Jorma Kaukonen of Hot Tuna and the Jefferson Airplane

“A fingerpicking guitar virtuoso.”
          – Happy Traum

Toby Walker (Both photos by Larry Sribnick)

Videos:

“Shetland Pony Blues”

“Nobody’s Fault But Mine”

“Bootlegger’s Blues”