Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Their audition: The Brothers Walker sang “Keep Me in Mind” by the Zac Brown Band for their audition on The Voice. The country tune caused Blake’s ears to perk up, but he didn’t turn his chair. Usher did, with a foot tap at the very end of their audition. “I know this is odd for you probably,” Usher said, upon realizing he’d landed a country duo. Responded Coty Walker: “Awesome would be the word I’d use.”

Their background: The Brothers Walker are Coty and Clinton Walker, identical twins who are 26 and from Bernie, Missouri, population — 1,958. They started singing together at a very young age and got to sing on the Johnny Cash show when they were 7. They eventually formed a band together. “It was something we did for fun.” Coty says. “We really didn’t see it as a career.” Clinton became a high school algebra teacher; Coty is the audio engineer at a recording studio — The Walker Bros. — that they own together. They said running the business rekindled their love of music and performing.

On having Usher as a coach: Says Coty: “We’ve never been really run of the mill anything in our minds. We’ve always wanted to do things a little bit different, and there’s no better way to do country music different than to be paired up with Usher. So we’re excited about the pairing and about getting to work with him. It’s going to be awesome.”

What the show didn’t show: They don’t come from a musical family, but the brothers have been singing together for a long time and still recall their first performance, singing the national anthem at a high school basketball game at age 4. They eventually formed a Christian gospel/rock band called Sense the Fall. But their venture into country music started as an accident, they told the Southeast Missourian newspaper. It seems most people who visited their recording studio were country artists, so they decided to write a country song for a commercial to promote the business. The song was called “The Life,” and it caught on. Suddenly, they were getting requests to perform. “Then we got a call asking us to open up for Travis Tritt at the Black River Coliseum,” Coty recalls, “and we decided we’d better learn some country music — fast.” They wound up releasing a six-track country EP as The Walker Bros. in 2012; the EP includes “The Life” (embedded below). They know they’re likely to be compared to duos that came before them on The Voice, including The Swon Brothers, who finished third back in Season 4. But they believe they’re unique. “We were born together, we’ve been singing together, actually we’ve never sang apart,” Coty said in a conference call interview. “So we kind of have that one voice thing. I think that’s what kind of sets us apart as artists.”

On iTunes: Their audition song and the 2012 EP. Head to ReverbNation and you can hear full-length versions of the songs from the EP.

Update: They lost to Morgan Wallen in the battle round; they sang “Hey Brother.”

Keeping up with the Brothers Walker:
Twitter: @BrothersWalker
Facebook
YouTube:

Editor’s Note: For links to profiles of all the Season 6 artists on The Voice, go here. And check back for live blogging during every episode of Season 6.

“The Life”

“Wagon Wheel”

“Good Directions”