Walking on Fire

Walking on Fire
Studio album by
Kenny Neal
ReleasedMarch 12, 1991
StudiosKing Snake, Sanford, Florida
GenreBlues
LabelAlligator
ProducersBob Greenlee, Kenny Neal
Kenny Neal chronology
Devil Child
(1989)		 Walking on Fire
(1991)		 Bayou Blood
(1992)

Walking on Fire is the third album by the American musician Kenny Neal, released on March 12, 1991.[1][2] He supported it with a North American tour.[3]

Production

Recorded at King Snake Studios, in Sanford, Florida, the album was produced by Bob Greenlee and Neal.[4] Neal was backed by the Silent Partners rhythm section and Lucky Peterson on keyboards.[5] Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker contributed on horns.[6] Many of the songs were influenced by the Cajun music of Neal's Baton Rouge, Louisiana, youth.[7] "Bad Luck Card" and "Morning After" were inspired by Neal's appearance in the play Mule Bone, written by Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston; played acoustically, the songs are based on poems by Hughes.[8][9]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
All Music Guide to the BluesStarStarStarStar[10]
Chicago TribuneStarStarHalf star[11]
The Encyclopedia of Popular MusicStarStarStar[8]
The Grove Press Guide to the Blues on CDStarStarStarStar[12]
MusicHound Blues: The Essential Album GuideStarStarStar[13]
The North County Blade-CitizenStarStarStarHalf star[14]
The Penguin Guide to Blues RecordingsStarStarStar[9]
The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album GuideStarStarStarStar[15]
The Star-LedgerStarStarStarHalf star[16]
Windsor StarA[5]

The Windsor Star said, "This is not a guitar-hero album. All musical elements carry equal weight, making the songs and collective performances the stars."[5] The Chicago Tribune noted that "if there is a problem, it's that Neal still seems sometimes to be doing blues by the numbers".[11] The Los Angeles Times stated that "Neal plays electric blues with the angry-cat passion of the late Freddie King, the economical eloquence of B.B. King, and the slack funk one expects to hear in the blues dens of Chicago."[17]

The New York Times said that Neal "sounds jaunty as he cautions about love's duplicities".[18] The Star-Ledger praised the "raw, fuzzy tones just this side of feedback shriek".[16] The Journal News likened the album to Son Seals's Midnight Son.[19] The North County Blade-Citizen opined that "I Put My Trust in You" "may be the best blues song of the year".[14]

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."Look But Don't Touch" 
2."The Truth Hurts" 
3."I Put My Trust in You" 
4."Blues Stew" 
5."Morning After" 
6."I.O.U." 
7."My Only Good Thing" 
8."I Been Missing You, Too" 
9."Caught in the Jaws of a Vise" 
10."Things Got to Get Better" 
11."Walking on Fire" 
12."Bad Luck Card" 

References

  1. ↑ "This week Alligator also released...". Friday. Chicago Tribune. March 15, 1991. p. S.
  2. ↑ Dicaire, David (2015). More Blues Singers: Biographies of 50 Artists from the Later 20th Century. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. p. 137.
  3. ↑ "Guitarist Neal Visits This Week". Entertainment. Omaha World-Herald. July 21, 1991. p. 4.
  4. ↑ Gettelman, Parry (May 24, 1991). "Theater Is Just a Stage for Bluesman Kenny Neal". Calendar. Orlando Sentinel. p. 28.
  5. 1 2 3 Shaw, Ted (April 20, 1991). "Blues". Windsor Star. p. C2.
  6. ↑ Zibart, Eve (February 14, 1992). "Turning Up the Volume on Valentine's". Weekend. The Washington Post. p. 24.
  7. ↑ Bangert, David (July 16, 1991). "Kenny Neal loves his blues, family". Journal and Courier. p. C1.
  8. 1 2 Larkin, Colin (1998). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Vol. V. MUZE. p. 3888.
  9. 1 2 The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings. Penguin Books. 2006. p. 490.
  10. ↑ All Music Guide to the Blues (3rd ed.). Backbeat Books. 2003. p. 421.
  11. 1 2 Heim, Chris (June 27, 1991). "Recordings". Tempo. Chicago Tribune. p. 7.
  12. ↑ Hadley, Frank-John (1993). The Grove Press Guide to the Blues on CD. Grove Press. pp. 167–168.
  13. ↑ MusicHound Blues: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. 1998. p. 275.
  14. 1 2 Gallo, Mark (July 5, 1991). "New Releases". Preview. The North County Blade-Citizen. p. 15.
  15. ↑ The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide. Random House. 1999. pp. 515–516.
  16. 1 2 Kanzler, George (March 24, 1991). "The gut-wrenching honesty of the blues". The Star-Ledger. p. 4.17.
  17. ↑ D'Agostino, John (August 14, 1991). "Hot Blues Guitarist Set for Smokey's". Los Angeles Times. p. F2.
  18. ↑ Pareles, Jon (October 13, 1991). "Two Generations, Two Revivals of the Blues". The New York Times. p. A26.
  19. ↑ Shepard, Eric (April 11, 1991). "A blues treat on Alligator Records". Weekend. The Journal News. p. 10.
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