The Bart Walker Band

Bart Walker’s new, rocket-fueled album Waiting On Daylight is more than an explosive collection of 11 songs that ride the cutting edge of blues and rock. It’s also a bridge that unites the best in both genres and aims to connect a new audience to the deepest roots of American music.

The young six-string slinger — winner of the 2012 International Blues Challenge’s prestigious Best Guitarist award — sees the disc as fulfilling a dream that’s helped drive his course as an artist from bluegrass prodigy to MVP sideman to globe-trotting bandleader.

“The songs have deep grooves, great hooks and honest stories, and all of that’s wrapped in a sound that goes beyond the blues to a place where more than just blues fans can relate to the music,” he explains. “But the blues is where the heart of all the music I love lies, and I’m hoping Waiting On Daylight can lead people who love rock and songwriting back into the blues. For years it’s been my dream that I can play a role in making the blues popular again.”

With its blend of super-heated playing — which defines Walker as the latest torchbearer of the genre’s guitar hero tradition — tempered by a pervasive sense of soul, Waiting On Daylight is a perfect second chapter to 2011’s independently released Who I Am, Walker’s first one-man argument for the continued vitality and emotional heat of the blues. And from the deep emotional currents of the title track to the first truly original reworking of the Allman Brothers’ classic “Whipping Post,” the album captures an emerging talent coming superbly into the international spotlight.

“I’ve spent a lot of years squeezed in a van tearing up the highway to get from gig to gig, sleeping in cheap hotel rooms and living on the run,” says Walker. “Now I feel like I’m coming into my own, starting to taste success and starting to understand what I really have to give – and need to give — to the music that’s given me so much.”