Jeffrey J. Walker writes and performs for one simple reason: his fans. No matter what he speaks about musically, the topic always manages to work its way back to his fans. “The most fulfilling thing [about performing] has to be the response of the crowd,” he states.

Walker first picked up a guitar at the age of 10 and has yet to put it down. He played cover songs for years, but at the age of 23 decided that wasn’t enough; he wanted to take his relationship with his fans a step further. “You can do so many years of just playing cover songs ’til you want to try to create something and get a message across to somebody,” Walker says. As a result of that restlessness, he paused for a moment, put down his guitar and picked up a pen.

While Walker ’s shows typically consist of a wide variety of music, his own songs fall into the country genre; it’s the most natural direction for him. “It’s more meaningful music to me. It goes with everybody’s everyday thoughts.”

Now, at the age of 34, Walker prefers to co-write songs. He’s rendered many with his manager and friend, Jan Osterlund. Typically, Walker is not responsible for the full lyrics of the songs he co-writes. The actual music is typically what flows from his mind, as well as concepts for the themes of songs.

In terms of his writing, Walker has a few large-scale plans lined up. He recently visited Nashville to play and was approached by songwriter Anthony Smith, who has written songs for well-know country stars George Straight and Trace Adkins. Smith wanted to hear more, so Walker handed over a CD of his music. Now he just has to wait. “But that’s kind of the way the music industry goes,” he says confidently.

In the meantime, Walker is performing locally as much as possible. He slips an original in every so often. However, Walker typically performs covers more often than originals during his shows, and he actually enjoys requests. He enjoys them so much that he has about 350 covers committed to memory, knowing that people at bars want to hear familiar songs.

Walker will continue to perform locally as much as possible, while at the same time improving his song-writing skills, because “if you go to Nashville , you have to have the writing ability.” With any luck, Walker ’s fans will soon be swarming to hear his original recorded songs.

Visit www.jeffreyjwalker.com for more information.