Brian Walton (musician)

Early life

Brian was born in Duarte, California to Brian George Walton Senior, an automobile mechanic and Virginia Ann Walton (maiden name Hess). His parents had a troublesome marriage and even more turbulent divorce. Brian and his siblings spent most of their childhood shuttling between the east and west coast of the United States and were the subject of countless custody battles until his father's death in 1982.

Early on, Brian tinkered with every musical instrument he could get his hands on. His father recognized the budding talent and enrolled him at Marshall Fundamental School in Pasadena, California [1] which was known at time for its extensive music and drama program. There he immediately took to the violin and became the school's leading soloist. He was awarded a lifetime membership by the American Music Association after an impressive and highly publicized performance at the 1976 Rose Bowl Game (Ohio vs UCLA) halftime concert. Shortly afterwards Brian's mother won custody of he and his siblings and they spent the next year traipsing across the US eventually ending up in Buffalo, New York in 1977. In 1978 Brian became a ward of the State and spent the next 3 years in orphanages, group homes and halfway houses.

In 1981 Brian was emancipated and moved to New York City where he successfully auditioned at Juilliard School. In order to pay for his studies, Brian played 7 days a week at piano bars and coffee houses in the area where he was eventually discovered by A & R Recording executives and offered a staff writer/musician position in Nashville, Tennessee. He later was moved to Austin, Texas and began writing jingles for, among many others, Baskin Robbins, American Airlines and Maybelline.

The work was sparse and the money even worse, so eventually Brian went back to New York and joined National Guard in 1982, but that wasn't much better, so in 1983 he joined the regular Army and while stationed in Fort Bragg attached to the 82 Airborne Unit has was sent to take part in the Grenada conflict. Afterwards Brian requested a duty station in Germany where he served one and a half tours.

1988 to 2000

After the military, Brian was offered a lucrative position at a budding Robotics company in Germany by a musician friend which, strangely enough, became the starting point for his professional music career. Now able to fully provide for his young family, Brian began playing the USO circuit in Europe part-time with his Band "Bakersfield" backing artists like: Willie Nelson, Johnny Paycheck, The Bellamy Brothers, John Schneider, Tom Wopat, Dwight Yoakam and Vince Gill. It was during this time that he met long time friend and Johnny Paycheck Bass Player Ron Sweet (died in 2005) who introduced Brian to David Allen Coe, Alison Krauss, Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard. He also began writing, penning the first draft for "Made in the Shade" in 1988 and "Travelin' Band" in 1990.

When the US military began downsizing bases in the mid 1990s, USO gigs became scarce so Brian set his sights on country music venues in Germany He and his band quickly became popular at Trucker Festivals and large concert venues throughout Europe. With new venues came new friends and mentors. Christine Leon, Kieth Headley (keyboardist for Roy Orbison), Peter Faas, Dave Bell and Kevin Henderson all helped Brian along and it was during this time he met friend and future "Made in the Shade" album producer Mickey Lee Jones.

Recorded in 1991 at Tonstudio Pauly in Giessen, Germany, Brian admits that producing the album "Made in the Shade" was the most scariest and daunting task he'd ever undertaken. Brian was no stranger to studio work, however he didn't consider himself much of a singer and recounts an incident where Mickey kept him up to the wee hours of the morning just to get the right amount of "scratchiness" in his voice to lay the vocal track for "Think about it Woman". Most of the tracks were merely concepts and much of the creative work was done by Brian and Mickey in long houred studio sessions.

Album credits Made in the Shade (1991)

The album was signed to the now-defunct Giessener Rundfunk label, later picked up by Sony Music and produced two Top 5 billboard chart hit singles "Made in the Shade" and "Travelin' Band" in 1993.

Brian continued to perform and produce music earning several awards for his performances and helping to produce albums under the tutelage of friends and mentors Thomas Schmitt-Zijnen (Moody Blues, Saga, Barclay James Harvest), Tommy Korge and Dave Bell (Michael Sadler, Saga) until returning to the US in 2000.

2000 and later

Brian returned to the US in 2000, looked up old contacts and immediately began writing again. Together with Sony executive George Papadopoulos he founded Blue Rhino Records in 2001 and organized a Live tour with old friends and session musicians Ron Sweet, Mark Jeffries and Tom Martin the recordings of which resulted in the album "Made in the Shade Live!". 5 tracks off of the live album: "Made in the Shade", "Life on the Farm", "Travelin' Band", "Cause you're the One" and "Practical Man" rocketed up the country charts and got loads of national airplay reinvigorating Brian's solo career.

Work on the album "Kickin' it" ground to a halt after the artist suffered a stroke and multiple heart attacks. He was diagnosed with chronic diabetes in 2011 and suffered extensive peripheral nerve damage as a result. Rehabilitation took years and by the time Brian returned to writing and performing in 2013 he decided to can the entire project. Instead he took the finished tracks and pitched them to The Country Music Channel and The Discovery Channel as well as his old friends at A&R Records. The single "I Love My Truck" has since been featured in 4 documentaries and "Watch that girl go" in Maybelline radio and TV ads.

The album "What the ..." will be released on August 6, 2015 on the Blue Rhino Label and will be distributed by Sony Music. The album is a compilation of single tracks Brian has released since 2002 including tracks from the "Kickin' it" project and two new tracks "That Girl knows how to wear them Blues" and "Fly". Most of the individual tracks are already available on iTunes and Amazon and the CD will hit record stores sometime in September 2015.

Both Brian and his wife Inge are American Legion Riders, card-carrying members of the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans (DAV), Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and work extensively with the Wounded Warrior project. Brian also served as Vice-Commander of the American Legion Post 254 in North Port Florida before moving to Idaho due to health reasons. He is also very active with the American Diabetes Association providing education and mentoring to those recently diagnosed with the disease.

Awards and honors

Brian became one of the youngest lifetime inductees into the American Music Association at. He also received awards for being the most versatile musician in 1991 by the Country Music Association, musician of the year in 1991/1993 by the GCMA and special award as honorary musician of the Schleusinger Country Festival.

Discography