Seth Walker

Seth Walker (born 1974) is an American electric blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter. He has released seven albums to date.^[1] Walker's musical genres include Americana and jazz.^[2] His 2009 album, Leap of Faith peaked at number 2 in the US Billboard Top Blues Album chart.

Delbert McClinton remarked "the first time I heard Seth Walker at a small club in Nashville I was impressed like I haven't been impressed in 30 years, with performance, presence, and great songs."^[3]

Life and career

Walker was born in North Carolina, United States to classically trained musical parents. He learned to play the cello by the age of five,^[2] and gravitated towards the blues in his teenage years,^[1] largely inspired by the work of B.B. King, Snooks Eaglin, Ray Charles and T-Bone Walker.^[4] Walker attended East Carolina University where he studied art. His first public performance occurred in Greenville, South Carolina, where Walker opened with his cover version of Stevie Ray Vaughan's, "Cold Shot". He left Carolina and lived in Jacksonville, Florida, for a short time.^[2]

In his early twenties Walker moved to Austin, Texas, and began to develop his skills as a singer, songwriter and guitarist. His first album, When It Pours It Rains was released in 1998. Meet Me in the Middle (2000) was similarly credited to the Seth Walker Band.^[5] His 2002 album release was entitled Restless.^[2][6] On the Outside (2005) followed with a billing crediting Seth Walker and the Differentials,^[2] with his self-titled album appearing in 2006.^[1][4] Seth Walker received critical acclaim from periodicals including No Depression, Blues Revue and Maverick UK.^[7]

Walker met the Grammy Award winning Gary Nicholson,^[7] with whom he developed a songwriting partnership. This alliance led to his most successful release to date, Leap of Faith (2009), which was produced by Nicholson.^[1] Walker stated "this album was made during a time in my life when I was caught up in some shadows. The idea of a leap of faith actually does reflect where I was at personally and making this record was the light for me."^[7] The album contained tracks written by Walker alone, Walker and Nicholson, plus work by other songwriters including Nick Lowe and Percy Mayfield.^[8]

Walker performed at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in September 2011, and has toured supporting both Raul Malo and The Wood Brothers.^[3] The song "Back in Your Arms Again", jointly penned by Malo, Nicholson, and Walker, was recorded for The Mavericks' 2013 album, In Time, and released by them as a single.

Walker lived for fifteen years in Austin, before he relocated again in 2009 to Nashville, Tennessee,^[9] where he recorded Time Can Change (2012).^[1] In November that year, Walker shifted to New Orleans and started work on a EP. In August 2013, he planned to release three such EPs, each in a different musical genre, and in various roles utilising Raul Malo, Oliver Wood (from the Wood Brothers) and John Porter.^[9] In September 2016, Walker released Gotta Get Back, about which AllMusic noted that " Walker explains in the liner notes that he looked back to his early childhood for what got him excited about music in the first place for the album, and that family played an important part".^[10]

Discography

Albums

^[5][12][10]

References

External links

• Official website
• Seth Walker interview – April 2009