Sharing the CMT on Tour stage with Michael Ray and Jimmie Allen — and bringing a strong woman’s voice to the proceedings — is the fast-rising sister duo, Walker County.
Make that Ivy Dene and Sophie Dawn Walker, who first sampled Nashville’s musical waters by coming to town and busking on Lower Broadway. They formed their band in 2007, with their dad Billy Walker handling lead guitar.
The latest in their string of memorable singles is “The Hamptons,” a riff on the theme that it doesn’t take a multimillion dollar palace on Long Island’s most fashionable beaches to have a rockin’ summer. Older country fans may recall George Jones and Tammy Wynette’s 1974 romp on the same subject, “We’re Not the Jet Set.”
The rollicking music video for “The Hamptons” was shot in the Walker sisters’ hometown of Sulphur Springs, Indiana. They told CMT when the video was released in October that they wanted to show “you can have Hamptons fun without Hamptons money. So we filmed in our town’s diner, shot a scene in our cousin Johnny Walker’s pool and got a group of our family and friends together at the end to showcase the people who made us who we are today.”
Who they are is becoming delightfully clear. On the attitude spectrum, the sisters stand out as somewhere between that other sister duo, Sweethearts of the Rodeo, and the mother-daughter duo, The Judds. They display glorious vocal harmonies and an exquisite song sense, as also demonstrated in their wistful single, “Time Machines.”
Now signed to Warner Music Nashville, Walker County is booked as well for a series of shows this year with Wynonna & the Big Noise. Among the other country luminaries they’ve performed with are Dwight Yoakam, Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, Martina McBride, Old Dominion and Eli Young Band.
