By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor
When you head south on Highway 25 from Dexter, you quickly find yourself in Bernie.
The sights are typical of small-town America: ‘mom and pop’ restaurants, a park, and a small bank all greet you as you enter town. Making a left-hand turn onto Main Street produces similar results - small shops populate the strips of buildings on both sides of the road - until you look to your left; while the facade of the building once read Western Auto, it now reads The Walker Bros. You’ll be quite surprised what you’ll find inside - its now a state-of-the-art recording studio.
Clinton and Coty Walker are the twin sons of Tommy and Carol Walker, and have been musicians for ‘as long as we can remember’, joked Coty. The brothers are life-long residents of Bernie, and started out playing hard rock music with a Christian influence when they were in middle school. Now, they are living out their dream of owning and operating a recording studio, while continuing to make music.
Clinton handles the business end of the studio, and through his ‘day job’ as a teacher in the Holcomb School District, was able to provide the initial funding to open the studio.
”We started leasing three years ago, built our first room, and put a little money in this place. Our initial lease was for two years, and then we built our main room. That’s all we had to work with for a while, until I got my first teaching contract; then, we were able to get a loan so we could buy the place and get started, and that was a year ago,” he recalled. “For the last year, since we figured out we would be able to do this thing long-term, we established our business and rolled with it. We started working on the face of our company, and we’ve been an LLC for about a year. We just started promotion, primarily though Facebook, and now the company has developed into a lot of other things through our music.”
Coty is a self-taught recording guru, and handles the day-to-day production operations within the studio.
”It all started whenever I figured out I couldn’t make good grades in college,” Coty joked. “I fell in love with engineering when I was 15; I always ran the soundboard for our Sense the Fall shows. When we decided to do the studio, we decided Clinton would finish up school, become a teacher, and help lay our foundation financially.”
”There is a lot of skepticism starting a recording studio in Bernie, Missouri. It’s not the most promising, lucrative business that you would think to start here,” Coty continued. “It’s risky anywhere, but it’s even riskier in a place that doesn’t that many musicians down the road that will pay the amount that it takes to operate a business like this. We just had the faith that we knew we were supposed to be here; it’s where we were raised; we didn’t want to leave home. If we can do to it somewhere else, then we can make a good product here and people will come to it. That’s what we set out to do.”
On top of running a studio, the brothers have continued their first love: writing and recording music. Also under The Walker Bros. monicker, Clinton and Coty have transitioned to writing country music, and have produced a music video that rivals anything you would see on CMT today. Their first single, The Life celebrates facets of growing up in a small town, and has tallied over 11,000 views on YouTube.
”I started jokingly writing country music about a year ago,” Clinton said of the song. “I brought it home to Coty and we started writing some funny country stuff. Before we wrote ‘The Life’, all we’d ever done was funny, goofy country songs.”
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“That song really is 100 percent our life. It is what it is; people who have heard the song know the hook in the chorus about Aunt Debbie’s sweet tea,” Coty added. “When we were in high school, we went to Doug [Johnson]’s house for some of Aunt Debbie’s sweet tea, it’s just what we did. Growing up fishing with Dad…that’s why the video is what it is.”Clinton and Coty have teamed up with Chaz Watkins as their manager; Watkins has over 25 years of experience in the country and southern rock arena, and he has high expectations for the brothers.
”Five years from now, they’re going to be on a tour bus playing every big concert and festival across the United States. They’re going to come home and work in their own studio, but they’ll have people running this studio for them when they’re in and out,” he said. “This isn’t like a big transformation for them to say ‘Oh, we’re country artists’. There’s not a transition between country music and country boy; the only difference is one has a guitar in his hands.”
”If you listen to the first line of ‘The Life’, it’s ‘Where I grew up, there’s nothing wrong with being country’. They’re telling stories of life that they’ve seen here in Bernie, and there are more small-town people across the country than there are big city people, and big city people, deep down, want to be country people in this market,” Watkins continued. “City people that like country music, if they’ve never rode on a tractor, they’d really like to, whereas you and me, we’ve all rode on a tractor, but we didn’t like it because we were working.”
Watkins still has strong ties in Nashville, and noted that the brothers have several things in their favor when it comes to landing a major-label recording contract.
”Their youth is very marketable, and they fit in today’s country music,” he said. “The other part of them that is so marketable is that it doesn’t matter how big the crowd is; there could be two people or 400, it makes no difference. They’re both giggling and laughing up on stage, having a good time. That you can’t teach. You can’t teach that from me; they have that x-factor, it-factor, whatever you want to call it; they do it because the love it and it shows no matter what they’re doing. You can’t put that in someone, and you can’t teach it.”
”They do things musically that, as a musician and singer, you’re not supposed to be able to do. I think a lot of it is from being twins; I don’t know why it happens, but I’ve never seen it anywhere else,” he continued. “If we can find a way to market that and put it in a category where people can see it, I think it’s a no-brainer. As small as the project was, we started recording their album here, put a video out, and it’s taken off like wildfire in this small-market area. What happens when we have someone distribute this in a large-market area? I think that’s the only thing that we have to get from point A to point B right now is someone that has the belief that we have, to say ‘Hey, throw this on a wall and see if it sticks’, because if they ever meet them, it will stick.”
The Walker Bros. Held a release party of their debut album on Saturday (March 17) night in front of a sold-out crowd at the Bernie High School gym. ‘The Walker Bros. EP’ is available now on iTunes.
The shamrocks that grow,
And may trouble avoid you,
Whereever you go.
- Irish Blessing
By Annabeth Miller,
ShowMe Times Editor
She began playing the piano at a young age - taking lessons and remembering to practice, practice, practice. There were recitals, festivals, contests and more. And after she graduated from high school she head to college to study even more music.
Now, Jansen Williams has arrived at the pinnacle. This Sunday, after all the years of lessons and practice and study and preparation Williams will be presented in her Senior Piano Recital.
Sunday’s recital will be held at 2 p.m. at the First Baptist Church in Dexter. The recital is free and the community is invited to attend.
Williams will be performing classical musical pieces that she has studied during her collegiate career at Maryville University in St. Louis. She will be performing pieces by Beethoven, Schumann, Debussy and Bartok.
This recital is actually the first of two the soon-to-be college graduate will present. She will also present her recital at Maryville University at 7 p.m., Saturday, March 24 at the Maryville University Auditorium.
“I definitely wanted to do a recital in the Dexter community, as well as the one on campus,” William said. “All the support and love from everyone means so much!”
Williams Is the daughter of Kim and Gary Williams of Dexter. She will graduate in May from Maryville University in St. Louis with a degree in music therapy.
WHAT'S HAPPENING
- WHAT: Jansen Williams' Senior Piano Recital
- WHEN; Sunday, March 18
- TIME: 2 p.m.
- WHERE: First Baptist Church, Dexter
By Annabeth Miller,
ShowMe times Editor
She was flabbergasted, touched, humbled – and she didn’t guess it was really her until she heard her name.
When Kathy White’s name was called as the Friend of the Year at the recent Friends of the Library Fashion Show, cheers went up throughout the hall, but none so joyous as from the tables full of her friends and fellow Altruasians.
White was described Mistress of Ceremony Pam Trammell as a “forward-thinking, contemporary entrepreneur” who has built a service that is “second to none” in the community.
“For many years, without fail, she has maintained an active membership in the Friends of the Library,” Trammell said. “Beginning with the very first Fashion Show some 12 years ago, she has attended, contributed, and participated in its growth. She routinely donates time, resources, talent and products to help our fashion show succeed, whether items for our goody bags and door prizes, or making sure that the models look their very best from head to toe!”
White is a long-time member of the Dexter Altrusa International Club and is past president of the organization.
“She has furthered the cause of literacy, changing lives by helping those in our community find the materials and the skills to educate themselves and their families for a better tomorrow,” Trammell said.
White has given her time and talents to the Stoddard County Children’s Home and the local women’s shelter, and was instrumental in the establishment of the Alturas Scholarship at Dexter high School.
“Her friends describe her as one who always answers with, ‘Yes, we can do it and we will figure out how!’” Trammell added. “She has an innate recognition of the fact that the better we become on the inside as well as the outside, the more confidence we have, and that confidence is what creates success.”
White was presented with a bouquet of roses from Lucas Florist and was escorted down the fashion show runway to a standing ovation from the crowd.
Her name will be added to a plaque that is displayed in Dexter’s Keller Public Library.
Photo Above: Kathy White (right) was honored this weekas the 2012 Friends of the Library "Friend of the Year". Presenting her with roses at the Friends Fashion Show was Library Director Pam Trammell. (SMT photo by Annabeth Miller)
