David Walburn’s songs — Polished to perfection

Longtime Flathead musician and songwriter David Walburn has a natural music style and lyrics that seem bound to get stuck in your head. When his catchy tunes turn into earworms for his listeners, he feels he’s done his job well.

“What’s the goal in music anyway, but to remember it in one listen,” Walburn said in an interview Monday at his home in Whitefish.

His songs, an infectious blend of folk, Americana and Western, feel right at home whether you’re traveling the backroads of Montana, sitting on the front porch, or hanging out by the campfire.

Walburn recently released his new CD “My Embrace: Songs of David Walburn,” a collection of songs he’s written during his career. Produced and recorded entirely in his own Cabin South Studio with longtime friend and musical partner Michael Atherton, the project took six months over the course of last winter to hone into a well-crafted, tight 15-track CD.

He and Atherton, a music teacher for Eureka schools for 15 years, who Walburn has only praise and admiration for, have been playing together for about two and a half years.

“Michael is a musicologist. He has all the engineering skills and he’s 100% about what a song needs,” he said. “He also plays an incredible slide guitar.”

Having devoted more than 40 years of his life to songwriting — 30 professionally — Walburn says it was time to record these tracks. He’d previously produced four CDs, three of them in Nashville, the most recent in 2014, playing both acoustic guitar and harmonica.

Veteran drummer Don Caverly also contributed to the new CD.

“Michael and Don took less compensation than they deserve,” Walburn said. “They were very gracious with their time.”

Featuring Donny Rifkin on piano, with assistance from Toby Scott and Mike Murray, the songs on “My Embrace” are all written by and harmonies sung by Walburn. Karen Minton and Emily Clark also sang on the album.

Walburn comes from a family of writers. Born and raised in Atlanta, His father, brother and sister were all writers/editors. Walburn’s father Lee Walburn was a well-known, longtime newspaper editor and editor-in-chief for Atlanta magazine who interviewed such country icons as Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and Kris Kristofferson. His grandfather, though not himself a musician, wanted Walburn’s dad to be a musician so he kept on hand all kinds of different musical instruments, from guitars and banjos to accordions. In fact, one of his ancestors made the first fiddle recording ever, in 1927, called the “Walburn Stomp.”

In 1988 Walburn and three of his college buddies from the University of Georgia followed his brother out to Alaska to homestead.The friends went back and forth over the course of three or four years, living in a remote cabin. On their way out they passed through Whitefish, which would eventually draw him back to Montana.

“The night sky was dark. You’ve got Flathead Lake. The Flathead River. Glacier Park. The Bob Marshall. The Blackfeet Reservation and some of the best fishin’ in the world,” he said. “It was heaven on earth.”

Walburn met his wife Janis “JJ” in Whitefish where they decided to stay and started their family. While songwriting was his destiny, Walburn never thought of himself as a performer or entertainer.

“I wanted to write songs and have somebody else record them … and send me a check,” he laughed, his slight Southern drawl shining. “I was naive enough to think that it would happen that way.”

But life sometimes takes its own direction.

Walburn has a definite knack for writing clever, irresistible songs. And he’s had significant success at it. A solo artist for 25 years, in 2000 he started playing in Glacier Park, doing shows at Lake McDonald Lodge and East Glacier. His storytelling, original photography, historical paintings and photos went hand in hand for the multi-media shows he was producing. When he was asked where he wanted to settle in as the resident artist for the park, he chose Many Glacier — a steady gig he did six nights a week for 14 years.

“Many Glacier is the crown jewel of music as far as the park goes,” he said. During those years he also traveled the country doing educational programs in schools.

He says he writes by playing licks on his guitar until he hits a chord in a certain way.

“And it feels like a song. Then I start mumbling words until a spark comes. A line comes out. It’s such a rush,” he said. “It’s my crossword puzzle.”

Walburn figures he’s written at least 300 songs and, while he’s not one to promote himself, particularly on social media, he isn’t even close to laying down his pen or guitar.

When not writing songs, Walburn spends a lot of time “building stuff.” He completely remodeled the family home, built a log cabin on the property, built a vacation rental cabin on Duck Lake on the Rocky Mountain Front and has plans to build another.

Now that his new CD is out, Walburn plans to stay busy performing around the valley this summer.

“I’m extremely happy with this CD, he said.

“It’s all about writing songs. I still believe in them,” he said. “I want to get them down before I go so they don’t disappear with me. That would be a waste of a lifetime of work. That would be a shame.”

BREAKOUT BOX

Walburn’s music is available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify and Apple Music.

He’s playing this Friday and Saturday, July 22 and 23, at Sacred Waters Brewing Co. and plays every Wednesday at Flathead Lake Lodge. You're also likely to hear him at Tupelo Grille in Whitefish and Gunsight Saloon in Columbia Falls. For a complete calendar, visit www.davidwalburnsongwriter.com.