Bradley Walker: 'You get lost in his voice' and nothing else matters’
BY Tom Netherland
Hearald Courier

Hear Bradley Walker. He sings as if channeling such hard-core country baritones as Carl Smith and Lefty Frizzell.

But Walker also sings bluegrass. He knows the music of Bill Monroe and Jimmy Martin, as reflected on his aptly titled debut solo album, “Highway of Dreams.”

“The first time I heard him I stopped,” said Larry Gorley, organizer of Pickin’ at the Paramount, scheduled for two shows on Jan. 26 at the Paramount Center for the Arts in Bristol Tennessee. “Bradley is an attention-getter when he sings.”

Walker will appear at Pickin’ at the Paramount. And indeed, International Bluegrass Music Association’s current Male Vocalist of the Year astounds audiences. He in turn was astounded when he was simply nominated for the IBMA’s prestigious award.

“Couldn’t believe it,” Walker, 29, said by phone Monday afternoon from his home in Athens, Ala. “I was at work when they announced the nominations.”

Walker works at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in north Alabama.

“It was on a Tuesday,” he said. “I got a call from my manager and when he said I was nominated for Emerging Artist and Male Vocalist, my mouth just dropped.”

Bear in mind that Walker had but one solo album to date.

“I told everybody that win or not, I’d already won,” Walker said.

But then he did just that. Walker won the IBMA’s Male Vocalist of the Year. 

“It was so many emotions at one time. It was like, man, this is so real,” he said. “It was voted on by my peers. It’s hard to be nominated. That was a big accomplishment, but man, to come away with a win was amazing. They think I deserve it, and now by George, I’d better prove that I’m capable of that honor.”

That Walker has earned such an honor in tandem with high praise from marquee talents like Vince Gill bespeaks his impressive talent. That the hottest young singer in bluegrass has performed on the Grand Ole Opry and National Public Radio backs up such praise.

But Walker doesn’t walk. Diagnosed at birth with Muscular Dystrophy, he has been in a wheelchair all his life. But his wheelchair does not confine Walker.

“I’m sure some people think in the back of their mind, ‘Hmm, here’s a guy in a wheelchair. What’s he going to do?’ ” Walker said. “My goal is to make those thoughts go away. I never want the focus to be on the physical challenge.”

Mission accomplished, Gorley said.

“You get lost in his voice, and the MD goes to the back,” Gorley said. “You get lost in his voice.”

Consider this. Walker is perhaps the most musically successful person afflicted with MD. Maybe you’ve seen him. He’s performed on numerous national telecasts of the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. 

“My first time on the national telethon was in 1989 with the Oak Ridge Boys,” Walker said. “We had performed on Ralph Emery’s ‘Nashville Now’ [via now-defunct cable network TNN], and MDA caught wind of that and wanted us to come on.”

Walker wasn’t even 10 years old. And he was absolutely not a novice. Even by then he was a well-practiced singer. And why not? Music means the world to him.

“Oh man, music has been a part of my life since the beginning,” Walker said. “Music has been my best friend my whole life. You can stir up so many emotions with a song.”