Cindy Walker was a Texas native who was best known for her song writing expertise. In every decade from the 1940s to the 1980s Walker turned out country and pop hits for herself and a plethora of other artists. Known for her romantic, sentimental, Western-inspired works, she wrote more than 500 recorded songs over the course of her career.
Cindy Walker was born on July 20, 1918 near Mart, Texas. Her father was a cotton broker but music ran in the family on her mother’s side; her mother was a singer and pianist and her grandfather composed hymns. Growing up, Walker was involved in theater productions as well as singing and dancing. In her teens, she began writing music, notably inspired by her surroundings.
At the age of 22, when on a business trip with her parents to Los Angeles, Walker convinced them to stop at Bing Crosby’s office and persuaded the secretary to let her sing one of her songs, “Lone Star Trail”. The next day, Crosby asked to record it and after a demo of the song for Decca Records was given to Dave Kappa, Walker had herself a recording contract and her career began.
Within the first year of her career, Walker had already made the Billboard Charts, and started collaborating with major artists. One of the first people she began working with was Bob Wills due to her customary zeal and tenacity. After seeing Wills’ tour bus in Los Angeles, Walker called as many hotels as possible to find him and give him a sample of her work. Because of her earlier success, he said yes to a meeting and their working relationship that would last for decades began. Some of their most notable songs together are “Cherokee Maiden”, “Blue Bonnet Lane”, and “Dusty Skies”.
Working with Bob Wills cemented Walker’s elite status as a song writer. Walker continuously pitched songs to Wills and his band, leading her to contribute compositions for his Western swing recordings and even some of the movies he made. Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys eventually recorded around 50 songs written by Cindy Walker.
Due to her dynamic presence and good looks, Walker also appeared in a few films, notably starring Gene Autry. Because of her Decca contract, she also sang and produced multiple songs with Texas Jim Lewis and His Lone Star Cowboys and Spike Jones and his City Slickers as well as making a few short musical movies. While still working with Decca Walker released “When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again” in 1944, and although it was not written by her, it reached Number 5 on the country charts.
Despite branching out in her early career, Walker decided she wanted to stick to songwriting and composing which yielded significant results as her songs became more and more in demand. She even told the New York Times that “Songwriting is all [she] ever did love.” This led to her working with many reputable artists such as Ernest Tubb, Eddy Arnold, Gene Autry, Willie Nelson, Jim Reeves, Roy Orbison, and many more.
Because of her extensive and impactful career, Cindy Walker was an inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, being part of one of the first generations to be inducted. Then in 1997 she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and in 1998 she was an inaugural inductee into the Texas Music Hall of Fame. Walker played a huge role in the way that country music was viewed and written, showing that not all artists had to be defined by a specific genre.
In 2006, shortly before she passed, Willie Nelson released an album entitled You Don’t Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker that consisted entirely of her songs to commemorate her extensive career.
Links to mentioned songs
“Lone Star Trail” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLOiGs5sPRo
“Cherokee Maiden” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LByr0Qf4x8
“Blue Bonnet Lane” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4XMnVTSWa0
Sources
“Cindy Walker, 87, Prolific Songwriter with Western Flair.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 31 Mar. 2006, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2006/03/31/cindy-walker-87-prolific-songwriter-with-western-flair/d9cc0581-5963-4137-a3bf-034e11e2ef70/.
“Cindy Walker.” Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, 5 July 2022, https://www.countrymusichalloffame.org/hall-of-fame/cindy-walker.
Lannon, Deirdre. “Walker, Cindy (1918–2006).” TSHA, 25 Oct. 2015, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/walker-cindy.
McClennan, Dennis. “Cindy Walker, 87; Wrote Hundreds of Songs Recorded by an Array of Artists.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 29 Mar. 2006, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-mar-29-me-walker29-story.html#:~:text=Known%20for%20her%20romantic%2C%20sentimental,for%20an%20array%20of%20artists.
