Our Projects & Who We Are...

This picture was taken in 1936 in Galveston, Texas. That's my Dad with the Bass Fiddle and my Uncle in the midst with the Fiddle. It was told that they would later travel around with the greats of the Texas Swing Bands of that era. I remember a Nashville great and Grand Ole Opry member, Little Jimmy Dickens, came to our home in east Houston when I was a boy . My Dad, Jimmy, Uncle Cesar and some others jammed all night long in our living room. I had an old Sears acoustic guitar and they let me sit in. I was "hooked" and never looked back. Thanks Dad and Thanks Uncle Cesar-JW

Unlike most musicians, I had no musical role models in my family.  My father didn’t play bass in a blues band.  My mother didn’t give piano lessons to neighborhood kids.  No  instruments laying around, nor was there a radio or record player blaring out songs in anything close to regularity.  I remember a cache of 8-track tapes that came in from Columbia House.  Burton Cummings, Engelbert Humperdinck, Barry Manilow.  It’s hard to imagine how a young lad would ever be inspired by music with such meager influences. That all changed in 5th grade during an assembly/talent show at school.  Some 6th graders (old guys) had formed a band.  With Electric guitars!  They played Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water.  I was immediately hooked. -"Cross Tie" Walker