Highway of Dreams
This stellar debut establishes Bradley Walker as a classic country throwback, the kind of singer who can make feeling awfully bad sound awfully good. His phrasing and affinity for broken-hearted material invite comparison with George Jones (one can easily hear Jones singing "When I'm Hurtin'," while "He Carried Her Memory" could be a companion piece to "He Stopped Loving Her Today"), his bittersweet baritone is reminiscent of Randy Travis, and he covers Lefty Frizzell's "I Never Go Around Mirrors." The album also benefits from harmonies by Vince Gill, Rhonda Vincent, and Alecia Nugent. Though songs of love gone bad (none of the material written by Walker) dominate, he shows a spiritual side in "A Little Change" and "We Know Where He Is," a workingman's populism in "Payin' Your Dues," and even a happy ending in "If I Hadn't Reached for the Stars." Mandolin, banjo, and fiddle drive the acoustic arrangements throughout, but only the uptempo "Shoulda Took That Train" sounds closer to bluegrass than country. The album's packaging doesn't belabor the fact that Walker was born with muscular dystrophy; a talent this strong doesn't need anyone's sympathy.--Don McLeese