Brian started his career in 1980 by boarding a bus to New York City to attend the prestigious Juilliard School. As everybody knows, NYC is expensive, so to make ends meet, he took on bit acting roles and tickled the ivories at nightclubs 5 nights a week. Between studies, he apprenticed in music production at A&R Recording under the guiding hand of the legendary producer Phil Ramone (Billy Joel, Barbara Streisand, Christopher Cross).
After graduating from Juilliard, he headed to Nashville to work for Capitol Records, where he composed and produced music for film and television, as well as for famous artists such as Willie Nelson, Mel McDaniel, and Anne Murray. Between his session work, he was frequently on the road with iconic artists such as Cyndi Lauper, Diana Ross, and J.J. Cale, or he was honky-tonking with legends like Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, and Johnny Cash at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, The Second Fiddle, or Legends Corner.
A stint in the military brought him to Europe, where he helped build up the burgeoning country music scene. The next 15+ years were Brian’s most successful, as he performed worldwide and shared the stage with legends including Joe Diffie, Dwight Yoakam, and the Bellamy Brothers. He also won numerous ACM and CMA awards for his performances, cementing his status as one of the industry’s top performers.
When Brian returned stateside in 2000, he continued performing while shifting his focus to music production, creating multiple critically acclaimed, Gold- and Platinum-selling albums and composing memorable scores for film, stage, and television. Throughout his long career, Brian has received numerous prestigious songwriting awards, establishing him as one of the industry’s most prolific composers and producers.
A trained pianist, Brian prefers to play guitar and is proficient on many other instruments. While he never really wanted to sing, necessity drove him to it, and he was good enough to win the Male Vocalist of the Year award multiple times. His live performances have been described in the media as electrifying and awe-inspiring.
When asked about the biggest influences on his musical career, Brian fondly recalls his junior high school music teacher, Meriah Diehl, who sparked a fire in him that changed his life and gave him the tools he needed to become a performer. Equally influential was his apprenticeship with his lifelong friend and mentor, Phil Ramone, co-founder of A&R Recording, who threw him headfirst into music engineering and taught him the skills that paved the way for him to become the award-winning producer he is today.
When he’s not making music, Brian enjoys spending time outdoors, hunting, fishing, and off-roading near his home in Idaho’s central mountains. He’s a huge Rush fan and an avid collector of their memorabilia. He is also a card-carrying member of the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans (DAV), and Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), advocating for veterans’ rights.
According to the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), Brian Walton is among the most prolific songwriters of the past few decades. With more than 450 published musical works, his compositions have been recorded by a wide range of artists, including legends like Diana Ross and Wynonna Judd.
But that’s not all. Brian’s music has been featured in more than 200 films and television series, along with countless radio and television jingles—for a total of over 1,400 placements! His career began humbly as an assistant sound technician and eventually evolved into a respected sound engineer, laying the groundwork for his remarkable career as one of the industry’s most celebrated producers, with 14 critically acclaimed albums, 11 of which have achieved Gold or Platinum status.
Courtesy of https://www.discogs.com
