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He is a guitarist. songwriter
and producer born in Midland, Texas, who started his interest in music at a
very young age and was already learning to play the guitar by the time he
was four years old and then a short while later he was bought an electric
guitar and given formal lessons.
By the time he was just a mere six years old he had
his own Little Billy Walker Show and when he reached fourteen he
left home for Oklahoma City to play in the Copacabana Club’s band and
other local venues. He met up
with Conway Twitty while there and he recorded some of Billy’s songs
and urged him to make a move to Nashville. Not taking his advice, he moved to
Los Angeles and became a member of the Palomino Club’s house band and
after meeting Cliffie Stone he found himself doing session work at Capital
Records.
Nashville didn’t stay away for long though, as
Capital asked him to do some session work there and so he eventually
settled there and began writing some instrumental music, which got him a
record deal. After having
recorded and produced seven albums of his own he decided to produce other
artists and ventured out on that path while continuing to do session
work.
Over the course of his career he has worked with a
huge array of artists such as John Anderson, The Beach Boys, The Bellamy
Brothers, Bonnie Bramlett, Rosanne Cash, Ray Charles, Billy Ray Cyrus, The
Dixie Chicks, Crystal Gayle, Vince Gill, Merle Haggard, John Jarvis, Waylon
Jennings, Nicolette Larson, George Jones, Martina McBride, Reba McEntire,
Ronnie Milsap, Juice Newton, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Demis Roussos, Dan
Seals, George Strait, Pam Tillis, Randy Travis, Travis Tritt, Tanya Tucker
and Trisha Yearwood and many more.
The albums he has featured as a musician are seven of
his own including Life Is Good, Painting Music, Universal Language, Walk
and Warm Front and also Riddles in the Sand by Jimmy Buffett,
Legacy 1961-2002 by Glen Campbell, Never Alone by Amy Grant, Healing
Hands of Time by Willie Nelson, Border Town: The Very Best Of by
J.D. Souther, Wild Streak by Hank Williams Jr. and the
soundtracks of the movies Apollo 13 and We Were Soldiers and
TV’s Dukes of Hazard and literally hundreds of others.
As a songwriter he has written many songs that have
been covered by a variety of artists including the No. 1 “I Wanna
Dance With You” by Eddie Rabbitt.
He currently runs his own studio called Our Place and
a small publishing house in Nashville.
Sources:
- http://www.gactv.com/gac/nw_cma_close_up/article/0,,GAC_26068_4714671,00.html
- http://buffettnews.com/modules.php?name=SongDatabase&file=bandmember&bid=107
- http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Billy%20Joe%20Walker,%20Jr.:1927190647
- http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:0zfoxqrgld0e~T4
- http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:0zfoxqrgld0e~2~T40B
- http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:0zfoxqrgld0e~3~T40B
- http://akas.imdb.com/name/nm0907476/
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