Willie Walker is a little known guitarist from South Carolina who never achieved the fame of his contemporaries but was remembered as the best guitarist around by all who had heard him. Walker was originally from rural South Carolina. Like so many other Piedmont musicians, Walker was born blind, so music was his way to make a living, perhaps his only way. Walker moved to Greenville, SC, with his parents George and Lucy in 1911. Apparently he was already an accomplished musician by the time he reached Greenville; Rev. Gary Davis recalled playing in a string band with Walker as early as 1911. For a while a young Josh White was one of the people to lead Walker around the city (and later led Walker's brother, Blind Joe). However, after Walker hooked up with guitarist Sam Brooks, the two played and travelled with no others until Walker's death. Apparently Walker travelled quite a bit, being listed as a Greenville resident in the city's directories only for the years 1915, 1917-1919, 1924, 1931, and 1933, the year he died. He apparently travelled widely; John Jackson's father knew Walker when Jackson was a youngster in Culpepper, Virginia. Walker would come over and play with the elder Jackson and impressed the hell out of young John. Other South Carolina bluesmen would play songs that they attributed to Walker; some of these suggested that Walker played medicine shows regularly, which may be why he was away from his parents in Greenville so often.

In December 1930, Walker and Brooks recorded four songs for Columbia in Atlanta. Only two of the songs were issued, South Carolina Rag and Betty and Dupree. Since this record was released in early 1931, deep in the Depression, it sold quite poorly. The other two songs were unissued and Walker was not asked to return to the studio. Walker passed away in March of 1933 of congenital syphilis, which was probably why he was blind in the first place.

There can be no doubt that Willie Walker was a guitarist extraordinaire, the best in the Spartanburg-Greenville area. Davis, a pretty harsh critic of other musicians, spoke in reverence of Walker's ability. Davis once claimed that he didn't even learn Walker's songs, though he did record two songs afterwards that he and others attributed to Walker (Cincinnati Flow Rag and Make Believe Stunt). The songs are spectacular examples of Piedmont music, and not just because of Rev. Davis' own guitar wizardry. Josh White, who at one time led the older Walker, said he was ``the best guitarist I've ever heard, better than Blind Blake''. Lifelong professional Pink Anderson said matter-of-factly that Walker was the best guitarist he knew of in South Carolina. We are quite fortunate that Walker recorded when he did; the Depression had brought the music industry to almost a standstill. It was rare that anyone outside of an established star was asked to record, another testament to Walker's music and ability. Today, Walker is not remembered amongst the greatest in the blues, though all evidence points to this. If nothing else, he should serve as a reminder that not all of the best musicians found their way to a recording studio.

Unfortunately, the four masters that Columbia recorded in Atlanta have not survived. Both of Willie Walker's surviving songs can be found on the Yazoo compilation cd East Coast Blues, 1926-1935 (Yazoo 1013).