Fortitude: A Musician Rises

Despite a formidable start in life, local musician Daniel Walker has risen to life’s greatest challenges. “Pain can break you, or take you places you never imagined,” says Walker. “It’s how you roll with the punches that matters.” The nightmarish grist that could have worn him down has instead produced a jewel of a man, say those who know him best. He is an impressive, versatile musician, a devoted father, and member of the Local Motion Party Band.
Two weeks after his eighth birthday, Walker’s beloved father, a full-blown schizophrenic, committed suicide. His mother, overwhelmed, began drinking. A once loving home became discordant. In addition to a blood brother only ten-and-a-half months younger than Walker, his mother bore two more sons. Concerned about how his youngest siblings would fare without him in a home now infiltrated with heavy partying, Walker began skipping weekend visits to his grandmother’s house. He finally confided in a middle school English teacher. “Mr. Romano, a godsend, encouraged me to speak about the problems I had at home. He pointed me in the right direction,” says Walker.
Counselors helped him process the delayed grief over his father’s suicide, and his mother’s alcoholism. He realized that if he was to survive, he had to get out, despite leaving his cherished brothers behind.
At age fifteen, he emancipated, moving from the small town of Derby, Connecticut, to Fairfield, Connecticut, where his aunt adopted him. He feels forever indebted to her. Walker then threw himself into every venue of art and music that he could find, including drama classes. His great grandmother, Elsie Thomas, provided informal piano sessions that proved invaluable. “I kept with it,” he says. “Music and art were my escape. It saved my life.” Quietly, he adds, “I owe so much to my aunt, my great grandmother Elsie, and grandmother, Ruth Walker.” He graduated high school with honors.
Focusing on his love of music gave him a way to keep positive memories of his parents. He remembers the love his Dad gave to him in the short time they had together. And his mother, despite her faults, told him he could do anything he put his mind toward.
A self-taught musician, by age eighteen, Walker was playing professional keyboard. He plays guitar, and mandolin, too. He also writes lyrics and music.
He attended Savannah College of Art and Design, and later moved to South Carolina, taking courses in jazz piano at the College of Charleston.
Today, he is a keyboardist and male lead vocalist in the Local Motion Party Band. “As a musician, he definitely has the goods,” says female lead vocalist in Local Motion, Jeanine Petit. Versatile, his genre is wide, from rock ’n roll, to alternative, to standards such as Frank Sinatra, she says. Petit considers him a “little brother,” and is impressed with the amount of personality he puts into his music.
Mary Spiegel says her ex-son-in-law will give the shirt off his back, especially for his sons, Caleb and Gabriel. “He puts the proof in the pudding. And when Dan was a kid, he held in there as long as he physically and emotionally could to help his younger brothers,” says Spiegel. Today, all four siblings are great guys, she says. “To have come from that hard place, and become such an awesome father, very sweet and moral, shows his fortitude.” A proud grandmother, Spiegel says her daughter, Julia, and Walker, co-parent beautifully.
Walker gives his sons the security he lacked growing up. He spends time with them, plays games, and enjoys the simple joys of childhood. “They are my greatest blessing,” he says. Walker turned away from late night music performances once the boys were born. He adapts his schedule to meet their needs.
To supplement his income as a member of Local Motion Party Band, Walker currently waits tables at Triangle Char ’n Bar, where he’s known for the positive vibes he sends out. “He’s amazing, and never complains,” says co-worker Liz Wessinger.
Walker’s message to other children and teens faced with a mentally ill, or alcoholic parent, is to “keep your head up. You are not alone, and others are out there to help.” His dream is to continue to write music, and record albums, and to one day make enough income as a musician to help local youth who face the same issues he’s surmounted.
Local Motion performs professionally, at gigs such as the Miler Country Club Shaggers Association in Summerville. They recently performed at a Summerville Dream block party, to an enthusiastic crowd.
For more information, visit www.localmotionpartyband.com
 
Lisa Weatherwax is a local writer. She earned the Matrix Table Promise of Excellence Award. Reach her at weatherwaxwrites@aol.com