Treasure Town

Once again from the rain soaked hot-bed of talent called Vancouver comes singer/songwriter Anthony Walker with more gold from the mine. He has not only taken a different approach on the new album Treasure Town but seems to be moving the goal posts for everyone else. After cutting his chops with such legendary cohorts as Art Bergmann and the Real McKenzies, Walker has come tearing out of the blue with one of the most striking and original discs to come from Lotus Land in ages. The album is like old vinyl in it's concept approach, a sort of buck-board ride through the back roads of rock & roll. A thread of southern swamp and twang seems to run through all the numbers with a sort of 'glam/blues' motif. There's a number called Jelly Roll that threatens to bring the Tin Pan Alley back although the stand out for me is the beautifully haunting 'Already There', a Dylanesque lonesome cowboy ballad with pedal steel guitar (Ray Condo alumni Jimmy Roy) and lilting vocals. There's plenty of rockers too like 'Jubilee' featuring the Pointed Sticks' Nick Jones on back up vocal, 'Low Profile' with the stunning voice of Cara May De Darko who is featured on several tracks and the en espagñol 'La Mejor Cosa Hoy' as a bonus 'otra' for the Mexican fans. On the front side it rocks 'sweet and simple, like poetry on a brick wall' as the opening phrase of the title track suggests, due largely in part to the solid presence of Charlie Quintana (Social Distortion) on the drum kit and Walker's strong vocal and guitar performances. Anthony has called up some of the best and brightest giving a polished contrast to his somewhat ballistic guitar approach. 'I wanted to to remember where I came from with this' he says, 'I love rock, blues and all the stuff that flows through it from way back to today. All these songs were written together although they're pretty different from each other I think they stick together well and should be heard that way'. In 'Treasure Town,' Walker has tapped into the notion that the buying public (as opposed to down loaders) still want to hear all the songs and hold the cover in their hands. It actually looks like a miniature vinyl album in it's cardboard 'wallet-fold' style packaging. His Real McKenzies song (and video) 'Mainland' still receives respectable airplay and he has a song in the current film soundtrack 'Stone of Destiny' starring Robert Carlisle. Now with a great album like Treasure Town in hand and proper management on board, this should be a good year for Anthony Walker.