Although I consider myself a fan of country music, I would not consider myself to being anywhere close to being an expert on this genre of music. Growing up, one of the first artists that I clearly remember listening to along with Keith Urban was Clay Walker. I was able to see him perform once at the Houston Rodeo and then again at the Cynthia Woods Mitchel Pavilion in the Woodlands.
Coming in to the course I had no idea of what I could really expect, nor did I know which artists we would be discussing in class. Although I didn’t have a clue about who we would be covering this semester, I am a bit surprised by the fact that Clay Walker has not been mentioned once throughout the course thus far. Clay Walker was one of the very first artists that I came across when I first started listening to country music. Because I don’t know much about the genre, I decided to take it upon myself to do a bit of research on him to see if I could figure out why he might not be as popular as other artists.
Clay Walker began his professional career in country music began in 1993 with the release of his debut album Clay Walker. As of today, he has released a total of eleven albums with four of them that went platinum and two that went gold. His most recent album titled She Won’t be Lonely Long was released in 2010 which brings up the question: “Where did Clay Walker go?” After doing a little research I discovered that Clay Walker was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when he was only 26 years old and he has been trying to deal with it since then. Since his diagnosis he has attempted to make contributions towards the cure of this disease by donating money as well as raising awareness about MS through his charity Band Against MS. Although it appears that he has gotten his symptoms of MS under control, the disease only continues to progress as he ages; this might explain why he hasn’t made much of a presence in the country music scene for the past five years.
I decided to put together a few of my favorite songs by Clay Walker for you guys to enjoy.
I would have to say that “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” is my favorite Clay Walker song. It always reminds me of my dad because it features Freddy Fender and for me it just brings back memories of the stories he would tell us about him growing up in Corpus and listening to Freddy Fender all the time. I also like this song because he sings part of it in Spanish and its different from any other song on the album.
Well what can I say about “Fore She Was Mama”? In contrast to the previous songs I chose this one is more of a silly upbeat song about a couple of siblings who were digging around and discovered things about their mom when she was younger. After the boys in the song uncover all of these dirty little secrets they’re shocked and its hard for them to even see her as a young, wild person who she supposedly was because they just see her as their mom.
I think this blog post is really interesting because I often find myself wondering where some of my favorite artists have gone. While I am familiar with some of Clay Walker’s music, I really knew nothing about him, especially the fact that he was diagnosed with MS. I think it speaks volumes about the kind of person he is that he uses his popularity and success to provide support for a cause that is obviously very near and real to him. I had never heard a few of the songs that you shared, but I really like them, so thanks for sharing!
Though my favorite country artist is George Strait, Clay Walker is one of my favorite also. I will also agree that it is kind of said that we haven’t talked about him as much but i will say this it probably would have to do with his relevance in the music scene because he really doesn’t have anything recent and he he isn’t as established as well as Tim McGraw which is probably Clay’s older music isnt listen to by newer listeners. i do believe he is an awesome artists and deserves more recognition for what he has done in country music.
I think this post is really interesting because I weirdly feel like I hear about Clay Walker a lot because he sings the Texans theme song that they play at all the Texans games when we score. I didn’t know that he had MS either. I really enjoyed the originality of this post, and the information that came with it!
I thought it was interesting that you decided to write a post about Clay Walker. Walker, like a few other artists that I remember from growing up, disappeared seemingly without an explanation. Unfortunately that explanation turned out to be multiple sclerosis, but at least now I at least know why I stopped hearing him on the radio. I agree that it is a bit surprising that we haven’t discussed Walker at all this semester. Some of his songs, like “What’s It To You” and “If I Could Make A Living”, were among my favorites growing up. It’s sad that he’s dealing with MS but I’m glad someone called some attention to him.