I always thought that a walking bass was walking between chords on the bass strings. If you are a self accompainist (no bass guitar to back you) your thumb is your rhythm section. In Steel Rail Blues there is a fine example of what I mean. After "carry me home to the one I love" the chords run, C, Em, Am, G7. I try to emulate the recording by playing a bass line of C-B-A-G twice after the first verse and once before the oooo oooo sections.
Also another good example of my idea of a walking bass is often heard on Leadbelly's work. Play low E string open, then at 4th fret, A sting at 2nd fret then 4th fret (counting 1-2-3-4)thats one bar. Then run back up from D string 2nd fret A string 4th fret then 2nd fret, E string 4th fret. Repeat the whole thing twice more, that is 4 bars in E, do the whole thing again starting on the open A sting for 2 bars. That is 6 bars of a basic 12 bar blues in E. B7 is a bit tricky but can be sorted out. I play the 1st, 5th,6th and 5th, notes of the Bmajor scale for that bar. It sounds quite good. This is what I would call a 'walking bass'
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