Good for the lungs, better for the soul: a treasure of country music sings for his life

My 2022 micro-tour of the southwest United States led to an encounter that proves the power of song.

The dry air of the Mojave Desert sucked the moisture out of my guitar and sent cracks down its back and through the bracing. But it was a thing of fate that led me to Kay Walker, the only luthier for 300 miles who could rescue my instrument, and a living treasure who everyone calls Mr Kay.

He grew up in Wyoming, where Kay was a name for a cowboy, not a boy named Sue. For 25 years, he fronted country bands in Idaho, until it burned him out in the 80s, and he put his guitar in its case and didn't touch it again for 30 years.

Mr Kay met me at his garage workshop late in the evening with a ventilator slung over his shoulder (courtesy of covid and lung disease) and worked on my guitar late into the night. Each day I came back to see him, and each day a new had crack appeared, so he set to work on it again. And all the while we chatted about old time country music and traded songs and stories. Mr Kay introduced me to this beauty, Man Walks Among Us by the butter-voiced Marty Robbins, and it took my breath away.*

With Mr Kay Walker at his workshop in Lake Havasu, Arizona.

After covid-19 ravaged his lungs, Mr Kay’s pulmonologist told him he had two options. He could spend 2 hours a day, 3 days a week in breathing therapy at the hospital, or he could sing.

He chose to sing.

Three evenings a week, you will find Mr Kay hosting jam nights with friends singing songs by the likes of Hank Williams, Marty Robbins, Merle Haggard and Charlie Pride from a well-worn country song tome of a fake book that he has lovingly compiled himself.

If you are ever on the road from Phoenix to LA and choose to stop at Lake Havasu, call in on Mr Kay Walker. You might be lucky enough to score an invitation to his jam sessions.

*If you have theories on what this song is about, write to me in the comments. I suspect there are depths of meaning beneath the vivid nature scene on the surface, but I don’t know anything about Marty Robbins’ political proclivities to be sure.