Before he got his recording contract, Bradley Walker had already performed on the Grand Ole Opry, appeared on national television and sung at some of America’s leading bluegrass festivals. One listen to Highway of Dreams, his stunning Rounder Records debut, explains why: Bradley Walker is simply one of the greatest young country singers alive. He belongs to a tradition that includes such outstanding stylists as Vern Gosdin, Merle Haggard, Mel Street, Gene Watson, George Jones, Lefty Frizzell, and Keith Whitley, all of whom he cites as influences. “It’s not like I’m on any kind of campaign to bring back traditional country music,” says Walker. “It’s just that this is the kind of music I love, the kind of music that makes me happiest. I’ve been singing this way all my life.”
Backed by some of Music City’s greatest acoustic players, under the direction of producer, singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Carl Jackson, Walker turns in one breath-taking performance after another on what is easily the finest country-bluegrass disc debut of the year. The message song “A Little Change,” alone, is enough to alert you that you’re in the presence of a master vocalist. The twin-fiddle waltz “He Carried Her Memory” is utterly heartbreaking, while the yearning “Lost At Sea,” the classic-sounding weeper “Love’s Tombstone,” the bluegrass rampage “I Shoulda Took That Train,” and the moving gospel outing “We Know Where He Is” are so assured, so emotionally complex and beautifully phrased, that they sound as if they come from a seasoned veteran rather than a newcomer.
“He really is one amazing singer,” says producer Jackson, who has worked with everyone from Emmylou Harris to Glen Campbell. The GrammyTM award-winning Jackson’s resume includes sessions with Ricky Skaggs, Jim & Jesse, Garth Brooks, Vince Gill and many other greats. But he reserves extra praise for this new stylist. “Bradley is a special person, as well as a talent,” Jackson continues.
“He is an inspiration to all of us,” adds Rounder Records co-founder Ken Irwin. The fact that Bradley Walker drove alone from his hometown of Athens, Alabama to Nashville for these recording sessions is itself a wonder. He was born with Muscular Dystrophy, and has been in a wheelchair his entire life. But this young man is as fiercely independent as he is musically gifted. He built his own home in Alabama, designing it for maximum mobility and comfort. He is also completely at ease in his customized van, and has been working a day job ever since his high-school graduation, in addition to singing and traveling to festivals regularly. “My whole outlook on life is that if you’re able to get out and work, then do it,” says Walker. “My parents always encouraged me to be able to do things on my own. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it hadn’t been for them.”
That’s true in more ways than one. Parents Tom Walker and Sherl Putman both loved music deeply. The radio played constantly at home and they always had plenty of records around. Tom sometimes sang, and Sherl once worked in a record shop. Their son was born in 1978, and was singing not long afterward. When he was 3 years old, his folks took him to a local Oak Ridge Boys concert. Backstage, the tot sang “Elvira” to the quartet, beginning a friendship that lasts to this day. “Everyone in town knew that I sang, even as a very young child,” Walker recalls. “When I was 4 years old I went on stage for the first time. From the age of about 7 or 8 onwards, I would sing in talent contests, in dance halls, at churches, just anywhere.”
Trips to Nashville were common. When he was 10, his family brought him to the Oak Ridge Boys’ fan club party. This time, he sang “Elvira” with the quartet. The group was so impressed that the following year he was invited to appear on the national cable show Nashville Now with the Oaks. “We did that Nashville Now show in March of 1989, and the folks at the Muscular Dystrophy Association somehow caught wind of that appearance. They contacted us and wanted to know if we could recreate what we had done on the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon that September in Las Vegas. The following year, MDA sent a camera crew to my home, spent three days with us, filmed my story and aired a Biography-type profile on the Telethon.”
All the while, his personal musical outlook was growing. “I started out playing dance halls not long after I graduated from high school in 1996. One of the guys in the band, Ray Edwards, played lead and steel guitar in our country band, but would also play the five-string banjo on a couple of tunes each night. He knew I loved his banjo playing, so when we’d leave on Saturday night, he’d take me out to his truck and play me some bluegrass. Aside from the first generation stuff – Flatt & Scruggs and Bill Monroe, mostly – the first ‘newer’ band I heard was J.D. Crowe & the New South, their classic 1975 recording. Then it was Lou Reid, Terry Baucom and Carolina. Ray would introduce me to this music, and I’d go home and listen to it all week. He later turned me into a big fan of Jimmy Martin’s music as well. That was a time when country music was really starting to change and to move away from traditional sounds, and I fell in love with bluegrass.”
