Chris Walters, noted banjo player from Kingsport, TN died on November 11 following complications from a stroke he suffered several years ago. He was 75 years of age.
Walters is the sort of musician particularly difficult to eulogize, in that he didn’t tour widely, and left behind no recordings to boast of his artistry. But he was widely regarded in east Tennessee, and further beyond, as an exceptional Don Reno-style banjo player, if not the best to ever do it.
A simple man, he was an auto body repairman and painter. His lifelong friend, Jerry Keys, who is himself a master banjoist and singer, tells us that Chris had no yearning for recognition whatsoever.
“Chris was Don Reno 110%. He could play it as well as anyone I’ve ever heard, other than Don himself. He was a great banjo player, and really knew the neck. He could play the Reno stuff, plus very creative slow stuff.
He actually played bass with Don in the band at one time. Reno would feature Chris on banjo sometimes. Don was actually thinking of having him do a Reno tribute album, but Chris didn’t care anything about it.
Playing with Don was one of the biggest thrills of his life”
Keys and Walters became friends in vocational school, which set each on the career path they followed through their lives.
“I took machine shop and he took welding. We picked at lunch and all that.
We made friends back in the ’60s. I remember there were two theaters where you could play back then in Kingsport, the Gem Theater, where Chris played with Bob Hicks, and the Fox Theater where I played on Saturday nights.”
Chris’ sister, Diane Tipton, remembered when he started out picking.
“Chris was around seven when he got his first banjo. It was too heavy for him to hold so he sat up in the bed with the banjo and a record player beside him of Don Reno. He would play them over and over, picking it out ’til he learned the song. By the time he was around 16 he started playing at the old Fox Theater with Bob Hicks and his band. He just kept getting better and better.”
Walters continued to play throughout his life, and folks in east Tennessee recall that he was always ready to share what he knew with anyone interested in the Reno style. One such was Jeremy Stephens, a very talented Reno-style picker who currently plays banjo and guitar with High Fidelity. He shared some thoughts on the profound influence Chris had on him, and on his bandmate, Kurt Stephenson.
“Chris was a phenomenal musician. He was one of a rare variety that could channel the styles of his favorite musicians almost like turning the dial setting on a radio. Those settings that I am most aware of were Don Reno, J.D. Crowe, and Chris Walters (himself, haha).
I never witnessed him playing J.D. Crowe, but my wife Corrina did, and she says that it was pretty amazing seeing and hearing that. When I was around Chris, he was usually set to Don Reno. He was an remarkable Reno-style player. He was able to play Don’s stuff nearly note-for-note as he recorded it.
Chris knew Don well, and had stayed with Don for a time at his home in Lynchburg, VA. Don had offered to do an album with Chris, featuring Chris on banjo, Don on guitar, Mac Magaha fiddle, and John Palmer on bass, but I think the prospect of doing it was probably overwhelming to Chris and it never happened. He often talked about that, and really regretted not having taken Don up on the offer.
Chris was a passive type person, and because of that he probably missed some chances in life that could have really benefited him and others. It is also the main reason that Chris is largely unknown to the music world except for a select few folks that sought him out.
Thankfully, though, Don Wayne Reno got Chris out to some of the Reno Revival events in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and because of that Chris was able to influence some younger players, of which Kurt Stephenson was one. Much of the Reno stylings that Kurt Stephenson plays come from what he learned from Chris at the Reno Revival. Kurt has a lot of video footage of Chris that we hope to make available in time.
Chris was not just a copycat of Don Reno and J.D. Crowe. He had a whole world or original banjo styling inside him also, that you heard when he turned the dial to himself! He could play steel guitar on the 5-string banjo better than anyone I’ve ever heard. He had a way of creating a tremolo effect with his palm on the bridge while still picking the strings with his fingers, and I’ve never seen or heard anyone do something like that as effectively as Chris did. I try to do that some myself, but have never completely achieved the same effect that Chris could with that.”
Here’s a video of Chris playing Crazy Arms, at a time when he was out of shape and not warmed up at all.
Keys shared that Walters’ final years were lived in a nursing facility. At the time of his stroke, Chris was living by himself, and he laid there for several days before anyone found him. The damage was so severe by that point that he became essentially helpless.
But Jerry remembers him for his big heart and unfailing kindness.
“Chris was married just a short while when he was younger, and didn’t have kids. I think that’s why he always collected toys, still new in the box.
He was just a good guy, who would do anything he could for you. When my daughter was just a little girl, I remember he would pull her around in a wagon for 20, 30 minutes at a time.
Everybody liked Chris.”
Chris Walters was laid to rest on November 17 at the East Lawn Memorial Park’s Garden of Love in Kingsport, TN.
R.I.P., Chris Walters.
