Bill E. Payne: Blog

I met Pops Walker around 2001 at the Mountain Stage Newsong Festival near Charles Town, WV. The first couple encounters were brief introductions and short conversations. Through those exchanges and later opportunities to hear him play and sing his brand of acoustic blues, I pegged Pops as a man who valued his relationships with important people in his life more than anything. Reading Messages Without Melodies Volume 1 confirmed my impression.

In 89 pages, he reveals much about his adult life, sending literary tentacles to his childhood as necessary when background is fitting. Most authors would take hundreds of pages to do the same thing. Not Pops Walker. Pops does not mince words. Oh, much of the language is colorful, no doubt. But like the songs he sings, Messages Without Melodies Volume 1 is long on feel and short on fluff.

Edited and introduced by Lee Maynard (author of another excellent book I read twice recently, titled Crum), Messages Without Melodies Volume 1 is 13 chapters in a style that breaks many publishing “rules”. It quickly becomes obvious that these “rules” have nothing to do with a book’s readability. I read Messages Without Melodies Volume 1 during lunch, and my second reading was just as easy.

Again like his songs, Walker’s book is conversational, spiced with an Army non-com’s manner in places (“if you fish with me, on my stretch of the river, you will have a river stick”). Likewise, chuckles and bona fide belly laughs are called for in places, along with jaw-dropping amazement in others.

I credit Pops Walker as an influence on my own music - right there with Elvis, Sam Cooke, Russell Smith and Harry Chapin. Now, Pops has written a book that is as enjoyable a read as those by any of my favorite authors. I love the music, love the book, love the man. But that just makes me like a lot of other people.

For more information, visit popswalker.com online.