Tradition of music Jake Walker draws on musical role models

Jake Walker made sound decisions in his arrangements to orchestrate an understanding of music. A guitarist, Walker plays the electric, acoustic and bass varieties. He also handles percussion/drums, knows the piano keyboard and sings.

A Madison native, Walker played at Asbury United Methodist Church, particularly as drummer for an Asbury band, throughout high school and assisted at the Downtown Rescue Mission. He has also used his music to entertain at weddings.

Although he did take piano lessons as a child, Walker said he learned to play primarily by “watching and looking up to older local musicians.” His father, Bryan Walker, is a consummate pianist who can deliver a classical sonata and immediately break into an improvised rendition of “Linus and Lucy” dance music from “Peanuts.”

In addition, Jake Walker listened and watched Marcus Pope and J.D. Blair on drums and John Knox, Jim Hawkins, Bobby Miller and Ross Kirk on guitar. “My two biggest musical role models are Jeff Williams and my middle school band director Mr. Johnny Nash,” he said. “However, I mainly learned to play by spending countless hours in my room practicing and listening to the radio or watching my dad’s band perform and practice.”

Growing up, he watched his father’s band, the Purple Ravens, which made an incredible impact on his music and life. “Each of those guys has been a musical role model to me, as well as another father figure … One of the biggest blessings in my life has been the fact that my dad has such great friends like the Purple Ravens, who have helped me grow up and helped me grow into a better musician.”

In his music resume, the young performer has toured all over Costa Rica with a local band named Connexion. “I’m also currently playing in a band of fraternity brothers in Tuscaloosa,” he said.

One performance he will always remember was his first time on stage with great-uncle Glen Sterling and his full country band. “My grandmother’s brothers and sisters all live in McComb, Mississippi. My great-uncle Glen has a big building on his property where, every week, people in the town come and listen to old gospel and country music,” he said.

Invoking very different feelings, a performance in Costa Rica both scared Walker and made him laugh. A speaker completely broke, so Jake’s band learned during setup that they would not have monitors. “We were playing in a massive concrete gymnasium with a very bad echo,” he said. “This was probably the worse thing that could’ve possibly happened to me — the band’s drummer. My main purpose is to keep everyone on tempo.” Compounding the dilemma, everyone around him was speaking Spanish. “Last minute, some random guy showed up with a truck full of amplifiers. We used that to replace the broken speakers. Thank God, we had monitors to play that night.

“Also, I accidentally left all my shirts in the first hotel in Costa Rica; for the remainder of the tour, I had to borrow shirts from the other guys.”

Currently, Walker is a full-time sophomore at the University of Alabama and is pursuing a degree in criminal justice and psychology. He served on his fraternity’s executive board as director of recruitment and initiated 31 new members in 2015.