Are you ready to celebrate our 50th anniversary? We have an amazing group of artists including the one and only Clay Walker! He joins Dierks Bentley, Jon Pardi, Darius Rucker, and Carly Pearce on November 17th, 2021 at our Coyote Joe’s show. Let’s take a look at Clay!
Get your tickets here!
Clay Walker
In a storied career dotted with smash singles, platinum albums and countless honors and acclaim, the connection between country’s timeless themes and music-of-the-moment timeliness is propelling Clay Walker back into the spotlight.
Many of the country fans behind the almost 20 million on-demand and video streams for his latest single “Need A Bar Sometimes” – who may also be among his 750,000 TikTok followers – are wholly unaware of Walker’s history. Discovered in a Beaumont area bar by noted producer and head of Giant Records James Stroud (Toby Keith, Tracy Lawrence, Tim McGraw, Kenny Rogers), Walker was in his early twenties when he started rattling off a string of smash hits. Among them, “Live Until I Die,” “Dreaming With My Eyes Open,” “This Woman And This Man,” “Hypnotize The Moon,” “Rumor Has It,” “Then What,” “I Can’t Sleep” and “She Won’t Be Lonely Long.” His self-titled debut album rocketed to platinum status, the first of four to cross the million-sold mark. Racking up more than 30 charted singles and 11 No. 1s wasn’t without its struggles, however.
“Being born and raised in the Houston area, I thought of myself in the line of George Strait and Clint Black, but my first producer had other ideas,” Walker says. “James Stroud pushed me more towards pop sounds I fought with. What he was saying, and I think he was right, was, ‘Clay, you’ve got some gears to you that will excite people if you let it.’ I was young – 23 – and didn’t really settle with that. But now I’m in a sweet spot in music, in life, and I definitely feel the audience has swung around to appreciating music that makes those connections.”
Teamwork is also at the core of Walker’s battle against Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Diagnosed in 1996, he has become a passionate advocate and fundraiser for others with the disease through his Band Against MS. Among his efforts is the annual Clay Walker Charity Classic at Pebble Beach. The golf event highlights the highly active way Walker has approached MS, continuing to perform and raise a growing family while showing no signs of slowing.
“It’s very gratifying to be at a point in my life where I can offer something in its fullness,” he continues. “I’ve never quite had that before. I was pegged as a neo-traditionalist early on, but I don’t think I fit that mold. For a lot of reasons – may be the pendulum of music is in the perfect spot – but today’s music and my style have hit center on this album.”
