Billy walker biography
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Billy Walker (January 14, – May 21, ) was an American country-music singer and guitarist, nicknamed "The Tall Texan."
Walker was born in Ralls, Texas, in , and became active in the Dallas music scene in the late s. After a brief stint with Capitol Records, he signed with Columbia Records in at the same time as Ray Price. Walker was a cast member on ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee in the late 's.
He is most famous for his hit "Charlie's Shoes." He fryst vatten also well known for his cover version of Willie Nelson's "Funny How Time Slips Away" and his hit "Cross the Brazos at Waco." . Walker joined the Grand Ole Opry on January 1, , and he was an active member until his death in
On Sunday, May 21, , Walker died when the van he was driving back to Nashville after a performance in Foley, Alabama veered off Interstate 65 in Fort Deposit, Alabama and overturned. His wife Bettie, bassist Charles Lilly Jr., son of Everett Lilly of Bluegrass ingång
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William Marvin "Billy" Walker&#;(January 14, - May 21, ) was an American&#;country music&#;singer and guitarist best known for his hit, "(I'd Like to Be In) Charlie's Shoes". Nicknamed The Tall Texan, Walker had more than 30 charted records during a nearly year career;[1]&#;and was a longtime member of the&#;Grand Ole Opry.
Biography[]
Early years[]
Billy Walker was born in&#;Ralls, Texas&#;on January 14, and was the youngest of three children. His mother died when he was only six years old, and Billy's father was unable to care for him and his two older brothers. Some of the children were placed in a Methodist orphanage in Waco, Texas. Billy attended High School in Whiteface,TX and had won a talentCONTEST&#;which entitled him to appear on radio in Clovis,NM. He seems to have played on his own radio show there, too. This was possibly at the station owned by Pop Echols at the time. Inspired by the music of&#;Gene Autry&#;as a teenager, he had begun his professional music career in
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This Week in Texas Music History we learn of a country singer who gave big breaks to Elvis and Willie.
by Jason Mellard / Center for Texas Music History at Texas State
Billy Walker was born on January 14, in the Texas Panhandle. His family moved around, settling in Clovis, New Mexico, where Walker started his radio career as a high school student. He began touring the Southwest with a country band after graduation, and joined the Big D Jamboree program in as the “Traveling Texan,” a stage persona who wore a mask supposedly to conceal his identity from wealthy, disapproving parents. He recorded for Capitol and Columbia, and moved on to the Louisiana Hayride, where he worked alongside Hank Williams, Sr. and a young Elvis Presley. Walker accompanied Elvis on his early, influential West Texas tours. In , Walker joined the Grand Ole Opry, and in Nashville he came to know fellow Texan and aspiring songwriter Willie Nelson. It was Walker who first recorded one of Willie’s iconic song