Frank Buckley Walker
| Frank Walker | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Francis Buckley Walker October 24, 1889 Cambridge, New York, US |
| Died | October 15, 1963 (aged 73) Little Neck, New York, US |
| Residence | Little Neck, New York |
| Occupation |
|
| Spouse(s) | Laura Boyne (married 1919) |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | Jim Vienneau (nephew) |
Francis Buckley "Frank" Walker (October 24, 1889 - October 15, 1963) was an American talent agent and author from the New York City area. Some of his talent discoveries included country music singer Hank Williams, blues singer Bessie Smith, and banjoist Samantha Bumgarner.
He is known for running the Johnson City Sessions from 1928 to 1929, which launched the careers of various artists including Charlie Bowman and Clarence Ashley. In 1923, Walker became the head of A&R for Columbia Records and RCA Victor. His career as a talent agent lasted for over 40 years until his death in 1963.
Frank Walker was born on a farm in rural Fly Summit, an area in Cambridge, New York, on October 24, 1889. He was the youngest of seven children born to Mary Ann Buckley (August 13, 1851 - April 25, 1922) and Solomon Walker (June 14, 1852 - November 6, 1895). Frank and his brothers, Lester, George, Mack, and Ed worked on the farm as children and helped with income for the family. They especially helped when their father died of consumption when Frank was only six. He disliked working on the farm as a child apparently because of the long hours of work and the hard labor. He left home when he was 18 and took up a job in a bank in Albany. Eventually he became assistant manager and stayed in Albany for five years.
In 1913, Frank Walker was offered a Wall Street job in New York City for a politician, this job he held until 1916 when he was drafted during World War I into the Navy. After his military service, he went back out looking for a new job in 1919. A chance encounter with a man named Francis Whiten who had connections with the owners of the Columbia Phonograph Company. This was a job in which he discovered his enthusiasm for country music and for his newfound career. He was eventually promoted to a talent agent and first went to the South in 1923 looking for talent meeting the Columbia A&R Atlanta Georgia's Dan Hornsby, after his promotion to head of the race division at Columbia Records. His first priority on mind was to find a talented blues singer he heard back in 1917 at a gin mill in Selma, Alabama. With promoter Clarence Williams's help, he found the woman, Bessie Smith, and brought her up to New York City to record the soon-to-be smash hit Down Hearted Blues. This would be the first of many hit discoveries for Frank Walker as he continued to succeed in his profession. In the late 1920s, the Johnson City Sessions in Tennessee led to many more successful country music artists. They included Bill and Belle Reed, Clarence Ashley, the Bently Boys, Ira and Eugene Yates, and several others. In the years following this successful venture, he became the head of RCA Victor Records and continued signing artists there in the 1930s and 1940s. There, he supervised recordings from legendary Big Band Music like Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, and Coleman Hawkins.
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