Joice Walton, Vocalist
– Jazz/Blues/R&B/Rock

 

Throughout her simultaneous careers as a boldly eclectic, local and international-touring jazz and blues singer/songwriter, Walton has also worked as a procurement agent for Silicon Valley hi-tech firms. 

 

On her new ten track c.d., titled, My Perfect Storm, the San Jose, California-based Walton pursues her songwriting skills with six tracks that she wrote .lyrics to, along with co-arrangements by S.F. based Guitarist, Tony Baker, and Pianist and Producer, Walter John Bankovitch. The genre’s and styles of the music on My Perfect Storm takes Walton is in a jazz direction, and also includes blues and rhythm and blues.

 

Walton was born and raised on a farm in Central, Texas, and a quiet country town with a population less than 50, most of them her kinfolk. The sixth of 9 brothers and sisters, she began singing at age 12 and soon formed a trio with her twin cousins and performed at high school pep rallies and retirement homes.  Her professional singing career began after moving to California, and hanging out the then blues juke joint called J.J.’s Blues in San Jose.  Soon after she sat in on jam sessions, she was asked to put together a band by the owner and began performing weekly at 3 different locations.

 

“Downsville Girl”, Walton’s debut album, was released in 1994 on the Pinnacle Records, her own Independent label on which she’s has released 4 c.d.’s. She was picked up for European distribution by Line Music in Germany on her debut album. Rave reviews and a 3 month European tour was followed by performances in Paris France, Peer Belgium, Amsterdam Holland, and Bellinzona, Switzerland. Walton’s touring band had the thrill of opening for the (Late-Great), Little Richard's Band and The (Late-Great), Blues Guitarist, Luther Allison. “Performing before audiences of up to 20,000 screaming Europeans was an amazing experience, especially coming from a small town girl from Downsville, Texas, then population 49”, says Walton.

 

Walton’s second album, 2012’s “Texas Heat”, was even more eclectic than her first. Recorded primarily in Nashville, she brilliantly wove the blues, country, soul, jazz, rock, and pop strains of American vernacular styles into a multihued fabric. Like her late friend, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, who contributed his guitar and viola to two tracks of the album, Walton prefers to simply call what she does “American music.” She also recorded a Single, titled, another original writing, titled, “Vegetable Soup”, which speaks to the issue of Black Lives Matter.


“I have a lot more stories, emotions, and experiences in me and look forward to bringing them to life, and sharing them with the world” … In Song