My love for music has always been a part of me. When I was young, my grandmother's gospel albums would fill her home, and I would pick up the melody by ear and tinker away at the piano.
In middle school my grandfather refurbished an old beater trombone he pulled off a wall so I could join the band. From there I added percussion, euphonium, guitar, vocal performance, and directing to my musical endeavors before graduating high school.
It wasn't until the passing of my mother (someone who had encouraged me to pursue music even though at the time I was nothing more than a mere karaoke crooner) that I purchased a full keyboard for myself and began to write my first album. I moved back to my hometown and partnered with local musicians to start performing in local venues.
Ben Walter with Notes to Myself (a name created by founding members Bryan Tomas, Monica Parker, and Jennifer Washington) toured venues in Michigan from coffee houses, churches, golf courses, breweries, festivals, and vintage theaters covering others hits re-arranged by myself and Bryan Tomas. After the original members of Notes to Myself moved away, I went on to complete the first album.
Woke Up to a Life I'm Spending features the title track dedicated to my mother. The song came to me late in the middle of the night as I couldn't sleep, much like many of the others that completed the collection.
I started gigging with musicians who took on the role of Notes to Myself and wrote my second album House Go Boom with their talents in mind to bring out more of a full band sound.
After many years of performing in Michigan we had our final gig together as a band at The Acorn Theater. What an amazing night that was. The full concert was captured and available to view here.
I moved to Chicagoland, where I play local venues and work in the studio with other musicians.
