Gary Walker, 1932-2020

Gary Walker, who died July 8 at Nashville's Vanderbilt University Medical Center, made huge contributions to the city's music industry during a 70-year career. Walker, who was 87, made his mark as a songwriter, song plugger, producer and businessman. He laid the foundations for a Music City record label, Chart Records, that would bring performers like Lynn Anderson into the spotlight. In addition, Walker founded The Great Escape, a long-running retail establishment that's sold used records and other pop-culture items to generations of Nashvillians. He knew the business from the inside out, and many of his songs have become country-music classics.

Gary Ray Walker was born on Oct. 7, 1932, in Romance, Mo. While he was still a teenager, he frequented the set of a television show that originated from nearby Springfield, The Ozark Jubilee, which featured the likes of Porter Wagoner and Patsy Cline. Wagoner recorded Walker's song "That's It" in Nashville in early 1953.

By 1956, when Walker arrived in Nashville, he had also written "Trademark," a 1953 country hit for Carl Smith. Walker started Chart Records in 1958 as a way to record local talent and lease their recordings to labels. He sold the business to music-business entrepreneur Bradley "Slim" Williamson in 1964.

In 1972, Walker and producer Cletus Haegert oversaw Memphis singer Bob Frank's self-titled debut album, itself a pungent slice of folkie realism. As Frank, who died in 2019, told writer Russell Jelinek in 2014, the record couldn't have been made without Walker's expertise: "All I did was sit in the studio and drink wine and sing the songs, over and over again until they had the exact cut they wanted."

Walker opened The Great Escape in 1977. In late 2010 he moved the store from its original location at 1925 Broadway into a space on Charlotte Avenue that had opened two years earlier as an expansion. He sold his majority interest in the company in 2017. After the sale, he continued to pursue his publishing and recording career via The Great Escape Music Group. His son, Greg Walker, heads that part of the business today, and recalls his father's drive and intelligence.

"He never had a safety net," says Greg. "He never looked back, and he knew as soon as he was a teenager that he wanted to be a country-music star. A lot of people who have success don't say, 'I'm gonna do this.' They say, 'I'm already doing it.' That was always his attitude about everything."

Walker is survived by his wife, Peggy Walker, along with Greg and a daughter, Karen Walker.