Rock’n’roll blues group, Billy Walton Band today released their second single, “Cortez The Killer” from their forthcoming album Dark Hour which is due out later in 2020. Released on Harmonized Records, the album was recorded at Cambridge Sound Studio and was engineered by Grammy-nominated engineer Jim Salamone. This is a cover of Neil Young’s 1975 song of the same name.
American Songwriter exclusively premiered “Cortez The Killer” and praised the musicianship of the band saying, “Billy Walton’s fiery fretboard wizardry shines through on his version of the Neil Young classic “Cortez The Killer,” an epic cover taken from the band’s upcoming release Dark Hour.”
In “Cortez The Killer” Billy and his band share their take on the Neil Young classic, adding their own spin musically and instrumentally. Taking the guitar solos and adding a wah-wah effect and introducing a trumpet towards the end brings “Cortez The Killer” to a new and more modern level. Speaking to American Songwriter on adding in the trumpet Billy Walton says, “To me using the trumpet at the end symbolized and painted the picture of Cortez charging across the ocean and conquering the Aztec. Our trumpet player, Bruce Krywinski Jr. really nailed the haunting sound I was looking for in the song. I just really thought it set the mood in the end.”
With a new album on the way, and though unable to tour to support its release, Billy Walton Band has been interacting with fans through social media by posting live performances, clips of them jamming, and talking directly to them about what the band is up to.
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