Walker to perform on telethon

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August 28, 2008

Recording artist Bradley Walker to appear again on Jerry Lewis Telethon

By Karen Middleton The News Courier Thu Aug 28, 2008, 09:00 PM CDT

Limestone County’s own Bradley Walker will make his sixth appearance Monday on the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon.

The 21 1/2-hour broadcast will begin 8 p.m. Sunday and end at 5:30 p.m. Monday. Local viewers may view the 43rd annual telethon on WHNT-TV Channel 19.

For the third consecutive year the telethon will be broadcast from the South Point Casino & Spa in Las Vegas.

Organizers will hit the airwaves to try to top 2007’s pledge total of $63.8 million

Walker, who began performing at the age of 3, was born with nemaline myopathy, a form of muscular dystrophy.

In 2007, Walker hit the big time when the International Bluegrass Music Association named him Male Vocalist of the Year.

Walker, 29, frequently says he is “blessed” in both his music career and in his job as a contract materials analyst at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, where he has worked for six years.

“I was always raised to believe that you need something to fall back on—you need a Plan B,” said Walker. “Very few people get to do the thing that they genuinely love to do. Singing is my first love.”

When he was 3 years old, Walker’s parents took him to a local Oak Ridge Boys concert. Backstage, he sang “Elvira” to the quartet. When he was 10, his family brought him to the Oak Ridge Boys’ fan club party. This time, he sang “Elvira” with the quartet. The group was so impressed that the following year he was invited to appear on the national cable show Nashville Now with the Oak Ridge Boys.

The Muscular Dystrophy Association heard about Walker’s appearance on Nashville Now and spotlighted him the following year on the Jerry Lewis MDA telethon.

After graduating from high school, Walker was inspired to turn to bluegrass music and performed with the Trinity Mountain Boys, which in 1999, cut the self-produced album, “Breaking New Ground.”

The Atlanta-based bluegrass group Lost Horizon invited Walker to become its lead singer in 2001 and was soon after invited to perform on the Jerry Lewis telethon. Walker believes his performance of “Big Spike Hammer” was the first time bluegrass music was presented on the telethon.

In 2002, members of the group IIIrd Tyme Out invited him to appear with them at the Grand Ole Opry where he sang the Jimmy Martin classic “Drink Up and Go Home” and drew a standing ovation. He has since been on the Opry several more times as the guest of close friend and fellow bluegrass singer Alecia Nugent and country artists Vince Gill and Mark Wills.

In 2006, he released his debut on Rounder Records, “Highway of Dreams,” produced by Carl Jackson.