The Walker Family Band

Peace, Joy, Music

For over two decades The Walker Family Band has delighted audiences throughout the Southeast with a distinctive take on traditional styles, performing Irish dance music and American Old Time music with a forward reaching attitude. We especially enjoy sharing original tunes, which grow naturally from these basic roots and from our thorough training and experience in classical music and jazz. On stage The Walker Family Band creates a confluence of sound with an end game plan, a fresh connection with each audience.

Based in Asheville, North Carolina, The WFB plays festivals, weddings, private parties, and other events. We are all teachers as well as performers. We are deeply invested in offering and supporting educational opportunities that promote and sustain traditional intergenerational music-making and dance locally and at workshops throughout the Southeastern US.

Bluebird Family Fiddle Camp

June 28 – July, 2025

We are looking forward to the 23rd annual summer fiddle camp now called Bluebird Family Fiddle Camp! Get all the details on our new camp registration site.

Register for Camp

The Walker Family Band, Asheville Division

Thursday, August 28, 7pm

The Walker Family Band will be performing at the White Horse Black Mountain Thursday, August 28th at 7:00. We will have a similar band on stage that you see in the picture above. Multi Generational!!

Learn More

Helene + Heartstrings

The Walker Family Band responds to Hurricane Helene.
Luckily, all of our family members and our houses came out just fine in the storm. However, we were all surrounded by a huge amount of terrible destruction. The combination of the waters overflowing their banks, accompanied by hurricane force winds, AND the many landslides occurring on the steep mountainsides, the problems were huge and varied. No one who lived here was unaffected!

Landon’s house came the closest to the danger. He had the water from the Swannanoa River come just below his yard, and 2 blocks below, was loss of life, many homes and businesses destroyed.

The day after the storm, everyone in the area had lost power, and cell service, and in some cases people were trapped. We could not contact each other for several days, so did not know what was happening. Scott had a tree down over his drive, and when that was cleared the next day, he drove towards Seth’s house, one mile away, to discover the bridge that led to his house was washed away. Seth was trapped along with 40 or so of his neighbors.

This is the sight of Seth’s bridge outage. There was a huge, corrugated culvert shown here, that was under the bridge that was washed downstream.

The incredible destruction and loss of life, began to become very apparent. Living in the area for the first couple of months was like being in a war zone. There were 1000’s of people who descended on the area: many regular folks who came on their own to help, the National Guard, many power trucks, firemen, policemen with helicopters working night and day. Many roads were physically impacted by the storm, and the ones that weren’t were clogged. Electricy returned after a couple of weeks, cell service much longer than that. Asheville had no usable water for several months!!

In October, right after the storm, Scott began planning a fundraiser to offer help to many who had lost everything. He began contacting friends he knew in Greensboro, and after a long period of planning, he paired with Peg Parham, who took the reins and worked night and day to organize our “Heartstrings for Swannanoa”. She discovered a wonderful new venue there, called the Back Table, which was totally donated for our use. The concert, which was really like a festival, was held on March 30th, started at 2 in the afternoon, and went on till 9 PM. The crowds were so thick at one point, we were hitting the building’s capacity!

Peg, a veteran concert promoter, outdid herself, taking care of the planning, advertising, and execution of the event. The show went on without a hitch. The support for this project came in buckets! We were powered by volunteers! We had 30 musicians in 10 different bands, and 40 more volunteers who were essential to create such a a success. We had sound techs, and their equipment, excellent announcers, caring people manning the doors, the auction and the raffle. All this was combined with amazing generosity from the public!

We raised well over $10,000 that day! We don’t know the total, because donations are still arriving!

Watch the concert + make a donation

All the money was offered to a very fine 501-C organization called “Valley Strong Disaster Relief”. a grassroots organization in Swannanoa that was and is still helping people in every way imaginable. They set up a donation and supply center at a music venue offered to them called “Silverados”. At that location they accepted tons of physical donations, and disseminated these supplies to people in serious need. There is no FEMA, so absolutely no middle man. They simply went out and located people who needed help and in many cases, provided the exact help the unfortunate folks needed! They are now building houses for people who lost theirs, but who did not lose their mortgages!!

We are still accepting donations, so please check out our QR codes that are connected directly to Valley Strong Relief ! The need will not go away for a long time!

Thanks to everyone who turned out for this incredible experience!

It All Began When...

The Walker Family Band had its beginnings in 2002, when Scott, his daughter Jennie, his brother Landon and close friend and musical associate, Scott Manring began playing and recording together when they found chances – which did not come very often. The Scotts were in Greensboro North Carolina, Jennie in Austin, Texas, and Landon in Jacksonville, Florida. Our one and only album, “Travelin”, named after a song of Jennie’s, was only produced at the cost of many road miles between us.

The band members have experienced many changes since those beginning days, and not all due to age! Jennie is now in Asheville, teaching, performing, and with her husband, raising her two beautiful children. In 2016, Landon married Linda Minke, from Jacksonville, Florida, and now we have a delightful and talented new family member in our band! For more history, go here.

The WFB’s instrument combinations and variety of styles creates a wide range of sonorities and musical feelings! Depending on the style or mood of the music, Scott (w) and Linda can add more fiddle and/or cello behind Jennie as she leads with her infectious smile and faultless fiddle. Landon’s bass anchors the sound. Scott (m) shares his genius on many types o’guitars. He and Scott (w) both play guitar in a low DADGAD tuning. If the band needs the evocative sound of an accordion, Landon can provide. When tunes ache for the banjo, Scott (m) is on call. Linda adds a variety of percussive sounds and has the ability to impart emotions of romance to tragedy as she delicately plays her Celtic harp.

Each band member brings a unique perspective and experience to the group, creating a musical blend that is as fresh and fun for the musicians as it is for their audience!

The Walker Family Band members obviously love to play together, especially when they perform each other’s music…and they play together as much as they can! The band performs in various configurations of its original self, and at various venues and situations all over the southeast.

The WFB band members are all teachers, combining their love of building community through the sharing and learning of music. Collaborative work with like-minded teachers and generous support personnel enabled The Walker Family Band to host educational events, camps, and workshops for over two decades. Even more gratifying is the love and support that students and families have given back! The Walker Family Band looks forward to many more years of collaborative sharing. Music, Peace and Joy.

Read How We Got Here