The Billy Walton Band - The Best at the Jersey Shore

The Billy Walton Band - The Best at the Jersey Shore - Bar None 

Today - Friday Jan. 10, 2020 - at Union Station solo 4pm 

Tonight - Josie Kelly's in Somers Point. 

By Bill Kelly 

Billkelly3@gmail.com 

The Billy Walton Band is the best rock and roll band to come out of the Jersey Shore in years, and there is no second, no challengers to the title Billy has held for the past few years, no one on the horizon to give him any competition. 

I’ve been following the wayward Jersey Shore rockers for five years now, and despite changes in some of the personnel, they’ve maintained a steady balance of really putting out from the first note to the last, and in no small part to the orchestration of Billy, formerly best known as South Side Johnny’s leading guitarist.

Since heading out on his own it’s quite clear that Billy has the talent, experience and visual charisma to take his music to another level, and break out of the seasonal Jersey Shore music scene, but he’s done that in a route that’s different than the Boss, Southside, Bon Jovi and the rest. Instead of trying to take New York or the major markets by storm, he’s going through the back door via Europe. 

Having played the UK, Netherlands and Germany twice a year for the past few years, at least a dozen times, he’s got the European tour thing down to a routine, and has built up a strong following overseas – a sort of reverse British Invasion.

Billy sort of reminds me of the classic jazz and blues artists who, when pop music drowned them out, found a friendly audience in Paris and London, or as the late, great Hubert Sumlin put it, “They like me better in Yope,” – and it took me a minute to realize he meant he was better appreciated Europe than at home.  

So after Billy Walton was away for awhile, I needed some rock and roll therapy, a good fix of Billy’s adrenalin fueled music and knew where to get it. Billy plays solo and with his band at a number of popular venues, mainly at the Jersey Shore – the Somers Point Beach, Mott's Creek, Sweetwater, Josie Kelly’s in Somers Point, a couple of Atlantic City casinos (Hard Rock), the Stone Pony and Wonderbar (Jan. 18) in Asbury Park, Lizie Rose Music Room in Tuckerton (Jan 31) and Union Station in Mt. Holly.

Starting the new years off on a good note, and for the third year in a row, I caught Billy and the band at the Laguna beach grill in Brigantine, for the annual Polar Bear plunge, though it has been more like a beach day in March, they really made the joint rock. 

I had previously caught Billy and the Waltons on their first gig back from "Yope" at Union Station a few weeks ago, and got a small table against the wall close to the stage. From there I got a good impression of why Billy is the Number One Jersey Shore Band not only at the Jersey Shore today, but in some parts of Germany, the Hague and UK, where their gigs are witnessed by enthusiastic fans that form a solid international base they are building on.

The Union Station is an old downtown Mt. Holly fire station that has been converted into an entertainment venue, a large hall with a bar against the close wall, tables and a large stage against the back wall. While there was a nominal cover charge, the $4 beers were like the local pub, and there was some good food being served around, though the crowd outnumbered the servers.

A relatively new enterprise, the second owner is organizing the place properly and has taken a shine to Billy, who booked the band not only for their first gig back from across the pond, but also for a few solo gigs where Billy comes in and plays guitar and sings all by his self.

From the very first note, I was waiting for a break to go get another beer, but it never happened, as the entire first set went on like a tornado, with lightning, and showed me how and why the Billy Walton Band is the most popular Jersey Shore band in Europe – if not the Jersey Shore, as they don’t let up.

That’s a nod of the head to Billy Walton, who I have nicknamed the Director, who has not only put together a series of great sets, but has choreographed them into a show that keeps you mesmerized from beginning to end. There’s no let up, not even between songs, like with most cover bands, who talk among themselves, “what do we play next?,” – “Any requests?”

Forget it, the Billy Walton Band does not do requests, or weddings, as they don’t do the macarena, but they do compile a handful of uniquely refined and rehearsed classics (“Papa Was a Rollins Stone,” Little Feat’s “Spanish Moon,” “Light My Fire,” and their growing litany of original tunes, ala “Hell N’ High Water,” that keeps your interest and by the second set, has the dance floor rockin’.

Like all of the best Jersey Shore rockers, Billy does extend some songs by keeping a steady beat, telling a story before whaling out, and giving each of the musician a solo  – drums, bass, keys, sax and trumpet, in which they all shine to let you know whey they’re there.  While the horns make it happen, Eric is hot on the keys, it is bassist William Paris – (there’s only one Billy in this band) who is the backbone of this band. He takes the lead vocals on a few songs, and stands out, with the rest of the crew now as tight as I’ve ever seen them, effortlessly moving from one song to another without instructions.

After a few really good CDs – “Soul of A Man,” “Live in UK,” “Live at the Stone Pony,” and “Crank It Up,” they now have another studio recording “Wish For What You Want,” that was produced by Eric Burdon’s drummer and award winning producer Tony Braunagel. And they recently spent time in the studio so there might be another one on the way. Though the recordings are good for the car, Billy is best appreciated live, and he never lets you down.

After the first gig back in the States at Union Station I just happened to be passing by a week later when Billy was doing a solo gig there, late Friday afternoon happy hour, and while it wasn’t promoted there were a dozen witnesses to Billy’s one man show,

I caught Billy unloading his equipment by himself, no roadie, and thought I caught him doing a menial job he didn’t want to do, but he gave me a Jack Nicholson grin – Here's Billy! - just for me – and says, “I’m livin’ a Dream!.”

And there’s a song there Billy, and indeed you are livin' a dream.

After following his mother into Long Beach Island bars with bands in the 70's, learning music and taking the guitar to the limit with South Side Johnny, Billy Walton is now taking a crew of musicians with him on a musical journey that’s still just getting started.

As my college logic teacher told me that it was great that I was a professional journalist and getting paid to write, it is truly great that Billy and his band are making a living doing what they love best – playing Jersey Shore rock and roll, and getting others to appreciate it.

As someone else remarked, solo Billy was playing as strong and as hard as if it was full house at Carnegie Hall instead of just a dozen people in a backwater pub. He even played a request, though he mocked it to emphasize his distaste for over-appreciated songs.

Billy began his first set with his vehicle still parked in front of the joint, that you could see through the big window, as a cop car was about to give it a ticket, so in the middle of a song he put his guitar down, moved the car, and returned to the mic, picked up his guitar and carried on as if he didn’t miss a beat.

His engaging smile makes you smile, his intensity makes you want to dance, and his continuity full fills you to the point that at the end of the show, you not only got your money’s worth, but you want more, or at least a CD to take home with you.

In looking at the Billy Walton calendar for 2020, I see that Billy is playing solo again today at the Union Station in Mt. Holly (from 4pm – 7pm) and then joining his band mates afterwards and playing tonight at Josie Kelly’s Public House in Somers Point, my old stomping grounds. It could be a double header.

Josie Kelly's is a new joint in the Point, an Irish Public House run by Kathleen and Dermott Lloyd and the boys from Limerick, that features live music almost every night, the new Tony Marts and Bay Shores, and the word on the street is that there will be a couple special guests sitting in with the Billy Walton Band tonight - Jeff Bugden and Sunday Grasso.

I'm going to try to make both shows, but I’m also starting to save up for March to follow them to Europe and catch the Billy Walton Band in Germany, where the boys from Liverpool had to go to make it, and UK, where they line up outside the pubs to see the boys from the Jersey Shore, and they don’t let them down.

From LBI, Mt. Holly, Somers Point and Asbury Park to Dorphof, Bedford, Cheltenham and Southhampton, the Billy Walton Band is on a roll, a Jersey Shore rock n’ roll wave that is really catching on, “Come Hell N’ High Water.”