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Bradley
Walker
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.”
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Bradley Walker’s “Highway of
Dreams” reviewed on NPR! Click here
to listen!
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Bradley Walker:
Highway of Dreams, Released 09/12/2006
Bradley Walker's Highway of Dreams is an astonishingly accomplished debut album, featuring Walker's rich, soulful baritone across a program of new and classic songs, supported by an illustrious cast of instrumentalists and vocalists. Produced by Grammy® Award-winning musician and songwriter Carl Jackson, Highway of Dreams winds skillfully between bluegrass, honky-tonk, and acoustic country music, introducing a new sound spun from classic cloth, and is an essential showcase for one of the finest new roots music vocalists to emerge in the past decade. Featuring special guests Vince Gill, Rhonda Vincent, Ron Block, Cia Cherryholmes, Adam Steffey, Alecia Nugent, Larry Cordle, and more.
"It has been many years since I have been moved by a debut album the way I am moved by Highway of Dreams."-Robert K. Oermann (Music Row, Country Music Magazine)
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Bradley Walker has been singing country music since his toddlerhood, and throughout his youth he performed in a variety of country and bluegrass bands. His debut as a solo artist finds him joined by a rather awe inspiring array of guest artists that includes Rhonda Vincent, Vince Gill, rising star Alecia Nugent, producer Carl Jackson and many other bluegrass and tradcountry luminaries, and performing songs in that sort of mostly-acoustic-and-blue-grassy-but-with-drums style that is becoming increasingly popular. What's significant about this album is not the fact that Walker was born with muscular dystrophy and performs from a wheelchair. What's significant is that he sings like a cross between George Jones and Brad Paisley, in a warm, rich baritone voice that alternately nails and caresses the notes he sings. Traditionalism cuts both ways, of course: one of country music's great traditions is the marriage of sweet, hooky melodies with stomping honky tonk grooves, and Walker celebrates that tradition on such gems as the especially Jonesy "When I'm Hurtin'" and the gorgeous "Lost at Sea". Most of the album showcases a perfect fit between his exquisite singing, the expert accompaniment of his session players, and thoroughly enjoyable honky-tonk bluegrass songs. Highly recommended. - Rick Anderson, All Music Guide
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