Willie Walker - A Twin Cities Legend with Southern Gospel Roots
The following was excerpted from the liner notes of our Twin Cities Funk & Soul compilation. Writers: Will Gilbert, Eric D. Foss, Danny Sigelman.
Willie Walker was born in Mississippi and grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. He began singing at a young age, first a cappella with a group of friends in the park. Soon, a gospel group from a nearby church invited them to join, introducing Willie to gospel music. Beginning in the mid-1950s, he toured with a gospel group called the Redemption Harmonizers, and in 1959 he moved to Minnesota, where he has lived ever since.
In Minnesota, Willie joined his first secular group, the original “Val-Dons.” He remembers being recruited at a laundromat when Timothy Eason approached him and said, “You look like you can sing,” and invited him to try out. Even as he transitioned into secular music, gospel remained an important part of his life. Through touring with gospel groups, he built connections, including friendships with successful Memphis-based songwriters.
Through these connections, Willie was signed to the legendary Goldwax record label by Quinton Claunch and Rudolph “Doc” Russell. Although he continued living in Minnesota, Goldwax would fly him to Memphis for recording sessions. Without lodging provided, he often stayed with friends such as songwriters Roosevelt Jamison and George Jackson. Jamison wrote “There Goes My Used To Be,” which Willie recorded, as well as the soul classic “That’s How Strong My Love Is.” Jackson was also a prolific writer, with credits including Wilson Pickett’s “Man and a Half,” Clarence Carter’s “Too Weak To Fight,” and Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll.”
Despite limited accommodations and unpaid royalties, Goldwax recorded Willie in top studios, including American Sound Studio in Memphis and Fame Studios in Alabama. His first single, released in 1967 as Goldwax #329, was “Ticket to Ride” b/w “There Goes My Used to Be.” His version of the Beatles’ “Ticket to Ride” became the promoted single. This release was credited to “Wee Willie Walker,” a name that stuck locally.
Willie recalls, “Ray Moss from KUXL locked himself in the studio and played ‘Ticket to Ride’ all day.” After that, people recognized him everywhere, solidifying his local fame as “Wee Willie Walker.”
His second and third singles were released in 1968 and licensed to Checker Records: “You Name It, I’ve Had It” b/w “You’re Running Too Fast,” and “A Lucky Loser” b/w “Warm To Cool To Cold.” Another track, “I Ain’t Gonna Cheat On You No More,” was recorded during this period but remained unreleased at the time.
Goldwax was struggling financially during Willie’s tenure and could not support touring. As a result, later releases were licensed out, and the label soon folded.
Back in Minnesota, gospel connection James Martin introduced Willie to The Exciters, with whom he performed on and off for several years. Drummer Herman Jones recalls, “Willie Walker was a small guy with a huge afro, but when he walked on stage women would just faint! He had this golden voice like Sam Cooke.”
There were plans for The Exciters to back Willie on his Goldwax recordings, but the label instead used established studio musicians, so the collaboration never materialized.
After The Exciters, Willie reconnected with Willie Murphy in Willie and The Bumblebees before moving on to groups like Salt, Pepper, and Spice and Solid on Down. In the mid-1970s, he recorded additional material with George Jackson, including “Run Around” and “You’re Gonna Miss Me.”
Much of Willie’s mid-1970s work with Jackson was later released on a compilation by Ace Records.
Willie Walker was one of the few Twin Cities soul artists to approach national success in the 1960s. His gospel roots gave him a powerful and expressive voice, and he recorded for one of the most respected southern soul labels alongside artists like James Carr and O.V. Wright.
Despite this, he stepped away from the music business in the 1970s, frustrated by near-misses in achieving broader success. He later returned to performing, singing with The Bound Band, the Butanes, and continuing to perform regularly.
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That's where the liner notes ended. But Willie wasn't done....
Walker’s final act brought him the recognition that had too often eluded him. After years of steady work his late-career revival accelerated with "If Nothing Ever Changes" in 2015, followed by two albums with the Anthony Paule Soul Orchestra: After a While in 2017 and Not In My Lifetime in 2021, both released by Blue Dot Records. Those records helped put Walker back on international stages and earned him widespread acclaim, including Living Blues naming him Most Outstanding Blues Singer in 2018.
It was not a manufactured comeback so much as the wider recognition of a singer who had been great all along. Willie died at his home in Saint Paul on November 19, 2019, at age 77, shortly after returning from a recording session. Not In My Lifetime, released posthumously, stands as one final document of a voice that still sounded urgent, tender, and fully alive.
Ask anyone in this town who came up playing in the ’60s and ’70s, and they’ll tell you Willie was the best. We interviewed dozens of people for Twin Cities Funk & Soul, and no one was more universally respected than Willie. I had the privilege of playing with him in the Twin Cities Funk & Soul All-Stars, a band created around the TCFS compilation, and I’ll be forever grateful for that opportunity. It was as fun on a personal level as it was musically fulfilling. -Eric Foss, Secret Stash Records