Walking to New Orleans : remembering Chuck Berry and Fats Domino

"Following up 2013's urbane Inspiration: A Tribute to Nat King Cole, George Benson returns with another tribute production, 2019's ebullient Walking to New Orleans: Remembering Chuck Berry and Fats Domino. Interestingly, while Benson is best known for his funky instrumental jazz of the '70s and '80s, and smooth R&B crooning of the '80s and '90s, both of these latter-career tributes find him tackling material from even older traditions. Where Inspiration was a lushly swinging standards album, Walking to New Orleans is all blues grit and old-school R&B swagger. Though primarily influenced by jazz artists like Wes Montgomery and Charlie Christian, Benson certainly owes at least a modicum of his soulful style to early rock legends Berry and Domino, both of whom helped shape the sound of modern rock and pop music".

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"`Walking To New Orleans' works hard for its moments of inspiration, most of which come from Benson's vocals and scat singing on the opening tracks.For the rest he seems overly keen on being a team player, while focusing on the song. He never overstays his welcome, when in fact what the album cries out for is just a tad more spark".

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