Peggy Walker returns to Nashville to honor work on '60s TV show 'Night Train'
Spending this week in Nashville is much more than a hometown visit for longtime Montgomery jazz and R&B singer Peggy Walker.
On Wednesday, she’s one of a select few invited to perform at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, in honor of her performances in the ‘60s on the Nashville TV show “Night Train.”
“I’m so excited,” Walker said. “I was really surprised when they called me. They told me, ‘Why should you be surprised, because it’s long overdue.’”
The museum was awarded a grant to create an online version of its 2004-05 exhibition, Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues 1945-1970. On Wednesday, in partnership with the National Museum of African American Music, they’ll host an evening of performances and conversations. The show at the CMA Theater begins at 6:30 p.m., and free tickets are available online at countrymusichalloffame.org/night-train-to-nashville.
Along with Walker, guests for Wednesday’s performance include Levert Allison of the Fairfield Four, Jimmy Church, Frank Howard, and Charles “Wigg” Walker, plus the contemporary duo The War and Treaty of Universal Music Group.
“I did a lot of Aretha Franklin and Etta James songs while I was there, and they’re asking me to do something like that,” Walker said. One song in particular she’s been requested to do was James’ “At Last.”
Featuring an all-Black cast, “Night Train” started on WLAC in October 1964, and aired at midnight on Saturdays. It was hosted by Noble Blackwell. The show featured Nashville artists like Jimmy Church, the Spidells and the Hytones. The Avons were regulars, and Jimi Hendrix was also featured.
“We had very good artists, and, of course, it highlighted the local artists who were very talented, and a lot of hard work went into it because we would practice at various community centers in Nashville,” Blackwell said in a quote about the Country Music Hall of Fame exhibit. “The Nashville Housing Authority allowed us to use the community centers where we would practice."
More with Peggy Walker
Born and raised in Nashville, Walker has been singing in church since she was 10. Then known as Peggy Gaines, her public performances began at around 13. She and her late older brother were the only singers in the house. Along with gospel, her tastes ran toward jazz. Today she also does a lot of blues and R&B.
READ MORE: Peggy Walker still sharing gift of music and love
At 15, she won a singing contest at Nashville’s Hadley Park with the James hit, “Sunday Kind of Love.”
By 16, Walker was performing on “Night Train.” She was also a recording artist. One of her early releases from 1963 was "Tell Him."
YouTube has recordings from “Night Train” available, one of which is Walker singing a cover of Aretha Franklin's "One Step Ahead."
She stayed in Nashville until the late ‘70s, when she moved to Montgomery with her husband, Sheffield Walker. Sheffield Walker, a guitarist for years with Montgomery blues artist John Bull, died in 2015. Peggy Walker occasionally joined with them to sing, and after her husband died, she was invited to join the John Bull Band. She has been performing with Bull off and on since then, and credits her time with the band with saving her life from grief and depression.
"I wouldn't have been out there singing anymore after my husband died if it wasn't for John," Walker said. "John is the one that really got me started again. He did. He's the one who held my hand and led me back out there."
Those performances are often held on the Harriott II Riverboat, where she gets really active with the crowd — singing, dancing and even leading conga lines.
READ MORE: Despite pandemic, house fire, Montgomery singer Peggy Walker keeps moving forward
Though the pandemic kept her from singing anywhere but church for two years — and she also had a house fire in late November 2021 — she’s been getting back out to perform again. Along with singing with Bull, she’s also a regular guest with the jazz trio Woodson, Weldon, Woodson on Wednesdays at Echelon Grill, on Airbase Boulevard in Montgomery.
Her work on “Night Train” was also honored in 2017, when Walker returned to Nashville to receive an award from the Tennessee Rhythm and Blues Society. That was her first time she’d performed in Nashville since the late ‘60s.
Montgomery Advertiser reporter Shannon Heupel covers things to do in the River Region. Contact him at sheupel@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Peggy Walker returns to Nashville to honor work on TV show 'Night Train'
