| This info is a memo from
Barb Walker:
I always like to say that it all started at the age
of 3 with my hit lyrics of, "My Daddy's a Greyhound Bus Driver".
Whether the family was laughing while I performed this, or actually
thinking to themselves "what a cutie". It didn't matter, as I
thought I was the next Country Music Star, Ms. Barbara Sloan! I
spent most of my time standing outside among our 13 acres singing in the
wind. I was always fortunate enough to find daddy's flashlight or
phillips screwdriver to use as my microphone. I knew that every
aspiring performer needed a mic in hand! I kept pretty quiet to the
outside world until I entered Junior High. It was there that I
discovered there were others like me and I joined every possible choir
available. By the time I was in High School, I performed in each of
the fall musicals and sprig plays. I believe that this was a huge
stepping stone to developing myself and relieving any fears that I had
about performing in front of others, and chasing Country Celebrities
through a mall! In 1989, at the age of 16, I was fortunate to have
been working at Cone-A-Copia at the Independence Center when I came from
the back room and saw Ronnie Milsap leaving the store and heading for the
exit doors. I immediately knew that I had to meet this fellow, so I
proceeded to the corridor of the mall and YELLED out to him as he begin to
open the exit doors, "HEY RONNIE!". He waved and walked on. Of
course, this too was not good enough, so I proceeded to track him down to
the parking lot exchanging hugs and getting a small piece of paper that
had etched, well scribbled, R.MP, in it You could say I was a young
girl....a little star struck.
In High School, I performed in such musicals as
Pirates of Penzance, Anything Goes, and landed a great roll as the
Matchmaker in Fiddle on The Roof. At our annual High School Academy
Awards, I had the honor of accepting the Best Supporting Actress award for
this roll. Yeah, small time, but it was pretty neat back then.
I even sang in Carnegie Hall in 1991 and had a phenomenal time touring the
streets of New York City. |
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In 1992, I ran across my
assistant director from High School, Dan Uptegrove, who offered me a
regular, weekly act at the Sundowner's Country Music Show. He had
just purchased the old Davis Theater in Higginsville, MO and was putting
together a family Opry Show. In 1993, I met my soon-to-be-husband
R.J. Walker, as he was fillin guitar player for one of our shows. He
offered an original pick-up line of, "Would you like to get together and
...write a song?" (instead of the standard, "would you like to go to
dinner?)...and 2 years later we were married in 1995. To this day,
we still find venues to play our music, and the one special song we DID
write together in '95. In 1999, The Sundowner's show moved to Oak
Grove, MO and continued until our final show on December 31st, 2003.
In January of 2004, I was honored to be asked to be a regular part of the
Middle Creek Opry Show in Louisburg, KS. I had 12 great years at the
Sundowner's and hope to tope that number at the Middle Creek Theatre.  |
