All I Got And Gone
Self-Released, 2025
8/10
The meticulous guitar player Chris Walz finally brings us a debut record, where influence from Tony Rice, Woody Guthrie and Etta Baker are present across these 11 timeless tracks.
“Alabama Bound” opens with a fluid blues presence, where the precise fingerpicking is met with Walz’s expressive pipes, and “Blue Ridge Mountain Blues” follows with a quick delivery of flatpicking fun that is quite warm in Walz’s interpretation of the 1924 song.
Landing in the middle, “Been Around This World” comes with vivid storytelling and no lack of melody via the detailed guitar and bright singing, while “Diamond Joe” is a highly intimate moment of beauty and grace thanks to the track penned by an inmate in Mississippi in 1937.
Further still, “The Coo Coo” is a hard driving flat picking album highlight that emits fluid, up tempo guitar, and “Spanish Fandango” exits with a pretty and poetic finish that parallels the beauty that Norman Blake played it with.
A lifelong educator of music, Walz knows his way around a guitar, and his ability to pull from folk, bluegrass, old time and roots ideas puts a fresh coat of paint on time honored songs.
Travels well with: Evan Boyer- The Devil In Me; John McCutcheon- Field Of Stars