Clay Walker (musician)
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| Clay Walker | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Ernest Clayton Walker, Jr. |
| Born | August 19, 1969 |
| Origin | Beaumont, Texas USA[1] |
| Genre(s) | Country |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
| Years active | 1993-present |
| Label(s) | Giant Giant/Reprise Warner Bros. RCA Nashville Asylum-Curb |
| Associated acts | Kimberley Locke Chely Wright |
| Website | http://claywalker.com |
Clay Walker (born Ernest Clayton Walker, Jr., August 19, 1969 in Beaumont, Texas[1]) is an American country music singer-songwriter. He made his debut in 1993 with the single "What's It to You", which reached Number One on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts, as did its follow-up, 1994's "Live Until I Die".[1] Both singles were included on Walker's self-titled debut album, also released in 1993.
Throughout the 1990s, Walker produced a constant string of hit singles on the country music charts, interrupted briefly when he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 1996; Walker has since participated in several forms of charity to help combat the disease.
To date, Walker has released a total of ten albums, including a Greatest Hits package and an album of Christmas music. His first four studio albums all achieved RIAA platinum certification in the United States, while his Greatest Hits collection and fifth studio album were each certified gold. In addition, he has charted more than twenty-five singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including six Number One singles. His most recent album, titled Fall, was released in the summer of 2007 on Asylum-Curb Records.
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[edit] Early Years
Ernest Clayton Walker, Jr. was born on August 19, 1969 in the city of Beaumont, Texas, also the hometown of country music artists George Jones and Mark Chesnutt. After his parents divorced, Clay lived with his father, who gave him a guitar when he was nine years old.[1] At age sixteen, after leaving his shift as night-shift desk clerk at a Super 8 Motel, Walker stopped at a local radio station to deliver a tape of a song that he had written himself. Although the morning disc jockey told him that the station's policies prohibited playing self-submitted tapes, he nonetheless played Clay's song, announcing that the song was "too good to pass up".[2]
After graduating from Vidor High School in 1987, Walker went on to tour the state of Texas, playing at various local clubs and eventually finding work as the house singer at a bar in Beaumont called the Neon Armadillo.[1] There, Clay was discovered by James Stroud, a record producer who helped him receive a record deal with Giant Records, a subsidiary label of Warner Music Group.[1]
[edit] Musical career
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Walker's debut album, the self-titled Clay Walker, was released in 1993. Its first two singles, 1993's "What's It to You" and 1994's "Live Until I Die", both reached the top of the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts,[1] as did the fourth single, "Dreaming With My Eyes Open". The album was also certified platinum in the United States for selling more than one million copies, starting a pattern that would continue with Walker's next three albums.
[edit] Mid-1990s
If I Could Make a Living was the title of Clay's second album, released in 1994.[1] Overall, it produced two more Number One singles, the title track (co-written by Alan Jackson) and 1995's "This Woman and This Man", as well as a Top 20 hit in "My Heart Will Never Know".
1995 also saw the release of Walker's third studio album, titled Hypnotize the Moon. Although none of its singles reached Number One, Hypnotize the Moon produced three consecutive Top Five hits: "Who Needs You Baby", followed by the album's title track and "Only on Days That End in “Y”".
In 1996, after recording the tracks to his fourth studio album, Clay was playing basketball with a friend, when he began to experience numbness, facial spasms, and double vision.[3][4] An MRI revealed that the singer has multiple sclerosis. After a year, Clay released his fourth album, 1997's Rumor Has It. Its title track, which was the first single released, became his sixth and final Number One single that year. Other singles from the album included the Top 20 "One, Two, I Love You", and consecutive Top 5 hits "Watch This" and "Then What?".
[edit] Late 1990s
Walker's first compilation album, titled Greatest Hits, was issued in 1998. Included on the album were two previously unreleased songs, both of which were released as singles. Of these, "Ordinary People" peaked at #35, while "You're Beginning to Get to Me" peaked at #2. Greatest Hits achieved a gold certification by the RIAA for selling 500,000 copies.
1999 saw the release of Live, Laugh, Love. The album's first two singles, "My Heart Will Never Know" and the title track, were both Top 20 hits, while 2000's "The Chain of Love" reached a peak of #3. Although Live, Laugh, Love was also certified gold in the United States, its fourth single failed to reach Top 40.
[edit] 2000s
In 2001, Warner Music Group merged Giant Records into its Warner Bros. Records division. The same year, Clay's Say No More album was released. Overall, it only produced two minor chart entries, neither of which made Top 20. After Believe: A Christmas Collection, a compilation of Christmas music released in 2002, Clay was dropped from Warner Bros.' roster.
A year later, he wrote and recorded a song for the National Football League's newest expansion team at the time, the Houston Texans. Titled "Football Time in Houston", the song was used as the team's official fight song during their inaugural season; except for a temporary switch in the team's second season, the Texans have used "Football Time in Houston" as their fight song ever since. Walker also sings the "Star Spangled Banner" at the Texans home opener each season.
[edit] 2003: Switch to RCA Records
By 2003, Clay found a second record deal on RCA Records' Nashville division. His only album for the label, 2003's A Few Questions, produced consecutive Top Ten singles in its title track and "I Can't Sleep", which Walker co-wrote with Chely Wright. Wright also sang harmony vocals on the ladder. "Jesus Was a Country Boy", the third single from A Few Questions, peaked at #31 in late 2004; Clay was dropped from RCA soon afterward.
[edit] Fall
Walker was signed his third record deal in late 2006, this time with Asylum-Curb, a division of Curb Records. His first single for the label, "'Fore She Was Mama", reached a peak of #21 in March of 2007. It was followed by the release of Fall, Walker's tenth album overall. Its title track was released to radio in April 2007; after more than thirty weeks on the Billboard country charts, "Fall" became Clay's first Top Five hit in seven years. It was later covered by pop/R&B singer Kimberley Locke on her CD, Based on a True Story. Also included on Fall was a cover of Freddy Fender's hit song "Before the Next Teardrop Falls". Clay released his third single, "She Likes It In The Morning", in January 2008, but it failed to reach the Top 40.
[edit] Charitable efforts
In 1996, Clay was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), a disease which affects the central nervous system. He manages his MS through daily injections of Copaxone.[5] He has also participated in several forms of charity to help fight MS; most notably, his own non-profit charity, Band Against MS.[3] He regularly competes in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am; in 2005, his team won the tournament, and Walker donated his share of the winnings to Band Against MS.[3]
[edit] Discography
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. allmusic Clay Walker Biography. All Music Guide. Retrieved on 2007-11-16.
- ^ Clay Walker biography. Clay Walker official website. Retrieved on 2007-11-16.
- ^ a b c Personal Connections to MS: Clay Walker. National MS Society. Retrieved on 2007-11-16.
- ^ Siegler, Bonnie (2005-01). Diagnosis: survivor living with multiple sclerosis, country music star Clay Walker has learned to put a positive spin on life. American Fitness. Retrieved on 2007-11-16.
- ^ Walker, Texas singer. St. Petersburg Times (2004-03-09). Retrieved on 2007-11-16.
- U.S. chart data: Billboard 200, Billboard Top Country Albums, Billboard Hot 100, Billboard Hot Country Songs.
- RIAA Gold and Platinum Database
[edit] External links
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