Biography
Born Earl George Walker on 15 July 1948 in Trench Town, Jamaica, West Indies, the singer absorbed his skills from Studio One veterans Lennie Hibbert, Ernest Ranglin and Tommy McCook. His first stage appearance came in 1962, when he performed briefly as half of a duo with Barrington Daley. That experience opened the door to a short stint in the Graduates alongside Earl Lindo, Carlton ‘Santa’ Davis and Richard Daley, although all four musicians later achieved wider recognition elsewhere. By the start of the 1970s Walker had rejoined Barrington Daley, this time in the Gatherers with Anthony ‘Sangie’ Davis. After several auditions the trio cut their first track, ‘Right Now’, under Jimmy Radway’s supervision in 1972; the recording stayed on tape for some time. Undaunted, they next turned to Lee Perry, who produced their standout single ‘Words Of My Mouth’. The song became an immediate success, yet the follow-up ‘Start Over’ made little impact. Once the Gatherers split, Walker concentrated on session work at Studio One, where he backed Dennis Brown and Freddie McGregor, and also sang with Boris Gardiner’s Happening Band until the mid-1970s. In 1977 he returned to Lee Perry, who issued the solo single ‘Better Future’. Although the record failed to register strongly in Jamaica, it attracted attention on international reggae listings. Additional sides from the same period—‘John Public’, ‘In These Times’ and a reading of ‘Summertime’—surfaced later when renewed interest in Perry’s archive brought them to light. During 1978 Walker shared lead vocals with Phil Callender in the brief-lived In Crowd. Despite releasing relatively little material under his own name, he remains respected for the many Jamaican classics to which he contributed.