Big Walter Horton or
Walter "Shakey" Horton (
April 6, 1917– December 8, 1981) was an American
blues harmonica player.
Born
Walter Horton in
Horn Lake, Mississippi, he was playing a harmonica by the time he was five years old. In his early teens, he lived in
Memphis, Tennessee and claimed that his earliest recordings were done there in the late 1920s with the
Memphis Jug Band, although there is no documentation, and many have since disputed this claim. (He also claimed to have taught some harmonica to
Little Walter and the original
Sonny Boy Williamson, although these claims are unsubstantiated, and in the case of the older Williamson, somewhat suspect.) As with many of his peers, he spent much of his career existing on a meagre income and living with constant discrimination in a segregated America. In the 1930s he played with various blues performers across the
Mississippi delta region. It's generally accepted that his first recordings were made in Memphis, backing guitarist Little Buddy Doyle on recordings for the
Okeh and
Vocalion Records labels, in 1939. These recordings were in the acoustic duo format popularized by
Sleepy John Estes with his harmonicist
Hammie Nixon, among others. On these recordings, Walter's style is not yet fully realized, but there are clear hints of what is to come. He eventually stopped playing the harp for a living due to poor health, and worked mainly outside of music in the 1940s. By the early 1950s, he was playing music again, and was among the first to record for
Sam Phillips at
Sun Records in Memphis, who would later record rock and roll superstars
Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and country giant
Johnny Cash. The early Big Walter recordings from Sun include performances from a young Phineas Newborn on piano, who later gained fame as a jazz pianist.
During the early 1950s he first appeared on the
Chicago blues scene, where he frequently played with fellow
Memphis and Delta musicians who had also moved north, including guitarists
Eddie Taylor and
Johnny Shines. When
Junior Wells left the
Muddy Waters band at the end of
1952, Horton replaced him in Muddy's band long enough to play on one session with Muddy in January of 1953. Big Walter's style had by then fully matured, and he was playing in the heavily amplified style that became one of the trademarks of the Chicago blues sound. His harmonica playing is characterized by a deep, rich tone, and precise articulation, using the full register of the harp and utilizing the higher notes of the harp with great dexterity. His tone was consistently deeper or 'heavier' than
Little Walter's, but with phrasing that was more in keeping with the Memphis traditions, and less adventurous and improvisational than the jazzier explorations employed by his chief harmonica rival
Little Walter. He also made great use of techniques such as tongue-blocking. Many blues harmonica aficionados consider Horton's solo on
Jimmy Rogers' 1956 Chess recording "Walking By Myself" to be his greatest moment, and a high point of post-war Chicago blues.
Also known as "Mumbles", and "Shakey" because of his head motion while playing the harmonica, Horton was active on the Chicago blues scene during the 1960s as blues music gained popularity with white audiences. From the early 1960s onward, he recorded and appeared frequently as a sideman with
Eddie Taylor, Johnny Shines, Johnny Young,
Sunnyland Slim, Willie Dixon and many others. He toured extensively, usually as a backing musician, and in the 1970s he performed at blues and folk festivals in the U.S. and
Europe, frequently with Willie Dixon's Chicago Blues All-Stars. He has also appeared as a guest on recordings by blues and rock stars such as
Fleetwood Mac and
Johnny Winter. In the late 1970's he toured the country with
Homesick James Williamson, Richard Molina, Bradley Pierce Smith and
Paul Nebenzahl, and appeared on
National Public Radio broadcasts. His musical output was somewhat inconsistent over the course of his career, unpredictably wavering between brilliant and workmanlike, and much of his best work was done as a sideman. Some of the best compilations of his own work are
Mouth-Harp Maestro and
Fine Cuts. Also notable is the low-key but excellent
Big Walter Horton and Carey Bell album released by
Alligator Records in 1972.
A quiet, unassuming man, Horton is remembered as one of the most gifted harmonica players in the history of blues music. He died in Chicago in 1981, and was buried in the
Restvale Cemetery in
Alsip, Illinois. 
