Remembering Alan Walden, who helped shape Macon’s music legacy

One thing is clear to Newton Collier: Macon’s legacy as a breeding ground for talented musicians and the birthplace of Southern Rock might not exist without the Walden brothers. 

Phil Walden, a trailblazer in music, died in 2006. On Thursday, his younger brother, Alan Walden — a music manager, promoter and publisher — died of cancer. He was 83.

The Walden brothers were a force to be reckoned with in the music industry. Not only were they key in launching the career of Otis Redding, they were pioneers in Southern Rock, a genre that propelled the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd to stardom. 

“If it weren’t for Phil and Alan, music would not even be what it is today in Macon, Georgia,” said Collier, a legendary trumpet player who performed with Sam & Dave. If not for the Waldens, “a lot of the guys that got a chance to go on the road would have never gotten it.”

Collier, 81, was barely a teenager when he met Alan Walden in the late ‘50s.

While over at his aunt’s house in Tindall Heights one day, Collier heard music emanating from a house nearby and saw a short, red-headed teen waiting by a shiny car. It was Alan Walden. Phil was inside, working a band practice with Johnny Jenkins, renowned as the leader of The Pinetoppers. 

“I went down and started talking to Alan,” Collier said. “He found out I was a horn player and one thing led to another.”

The friendship, unusual during a time of racial segregation, was instant and evolved into a lifelong brotherhood. 

Collier, who is Black, began tagging along on tours with the two white brothers. He learned licks on the horn from trumpet player Samuel Coleman. Later, when Coleman was unable to make a gig, Collier filled in for him.

“Here I am, a little kid, going out with the big boys,” Collier recalled.

Later, in the 60s, Collier went on to tour with Sam & Dave, playing trumpet on hits like “Hold On, I’m Coming” and appearing with the band for performances on “The Ed Sullivan Show. “

Collier and Alan Walden bonded over their shared passion for music. 

“We didn’t give a damn,” Collier said. “We defended each other, no matter what. If we had to go down, we were going down together.”

Redwal Music

Alan Walden was born in Macon in 1943 to Clemiel Barto “C.B.” and Carolyn Walden. 

In the early 1960s, when Alan was 19 years old, Phil left for a stint in the Army. Alan helped manage his brother’s business in his absence and learned it “overnight,” Collier said. 

Phil had been managing Otis Redding, who grew up in Tindall Heights with Collier and was a rising star at the time.

“I had 12 hours of training as Otis Redding’s manager and running my brother’s booking agency,” Alan said in “Southern Man: Music & Mayhem in the American South: A Memoir,” a book written with S.E. Feinberg.

“By the time Phil returned from Germany, Otis and I had a string of hits,” Alan wrote. “Phil congratulated me on what a good job I had done and wanted to know if I wanted to stay on and work or go back to Mercer. He really wanted me to go back to college. … But I told him, ‘I can’t see going back to college where I could learn to make less money.’ We immediately began an even stronger push to expand.”

Collier remembers that time well. “Otis was big,” he said. “And Alan is the one responsible for taking it to that next level.”

Redding and Alan became close friends, Collier said. Later, Alan bought a cabin next to the singer’s Big “O” Ranch, a 300-acre estate in Jones County. 

“He taught Otis how to ride a horse, and Otis taught him how to fish,” Collier said. “They wrote songs together. They were close. … They were inseparable in many ways.”

Redding and the Waldens established Redwal Music together, with big plans.  But tragedy struck just two weeks before Christmas in 1967. Redding, 26, was killed in a plane crash over a lake in Wisconsin. Thousands attended his funeral at the Macon City Auditorium. 

The loss was deeply felt in the city. And it was devastating for the Waldens, who took a two-year hiatus from the music business.

“The Redding family is deeply saddened by the passing of Alan Walden,” the Otis Redding family said in a statement. “Alan was a cherished friend of both Otis Redding and the Redding family. We are grateful for his friendship, his support, and the lasting impact he made on our family and the music world. Our heartfelt condolences are with Alan’s family and all who loved him.”

Capricorn Days

The Waldens got back to work in 1969. Capricorn Records was created, and the legendary label helped springboard notable Southern rock bands.

Alan described his work with his brother this way: “When a band came down south, they stopped in Macon to see the Walden brothers. When they got to us, we offered management and publishing and booking dates and travel for the musicians.”

But the younger Walden soon broke off from the label and began managing groups like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Outlaws and others.

“He bought Lynyrd Skynyrd to audition for his big brother, Phil, at Grant’s Lounge. Grant’s is famous because it was that audition spot,” said Rex Dooley, a Rock Candy Tours guide and a volunteer at the Allman Brothers Band Museum at the Big House. “Phil didn’t like the lead singer Ronnie Van Zant. He said, ‘Man, no, they’re trying to sound like the Allman Brothers. And the lead singer — he can’t sing, and he’s got an attitude, too.’”

Alan was undeterred.

Dooley said he heard that story and others when Alan Walden came to his house for dinner roughly 25 years ago, lured by Dooley’s girlfriend’s Southern cooking.

Henry Paul, the vocalist and guitarist for Outlaws, recalled the night the band caught Walden’s attention when it played with Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1974. Van Zant called Walden after the show to put Outlaws on his radar.

Walden teamed with Charlie Brusco to manage the band.

“(Alan) opened doors for us that would have been difficult for us to open on our own,” Paul said. “He instilled upon us a concept of aggressive style of play. It was Alan’s theory as a musical personality that stealing the show and going after the headliner was the way to do it. ‘Go for the throat.’ … And we did that. We still do that to this day.”

Brusco, who started a management company with Alan in Macon in the ‘70s, recalled his partner’s uncanny ability to connect with artists, praising his conversation skills and attention to detail.

“Alan always knew exactly what he wanted from a band. It was planned out. A lot of guys back then shot from the cuff. He didn’t just shoot from the cuff,” Brusco said. “When Alan was talking to an artist, everyone was paying attention because he knew what he was talking about.”

Dooley said that, while Alan Walden never stood in the same limelight as his brother, he could spot talent. And he was a good man.

He always asked about Dooley’s girlfriend after her daughter was killed in 1999, “He was real gracious like that,” Dooley said. “He was a good person.”

Alan’s daughter, Macon Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Jessica Walden, said her father’s influence can be felt across the city.

“His love of Macon was deep and wide. He could have lived anywhere the music industry called him, but he chose Macon. Here, he planted his unwavering belief that our story was far from over and that from here, anything was possible. Because of his passion for the place he called home and for the extraordinary local talent he believed in so completely, Macon made its mark on the world, and he made his mark with it.”

Staff writer Micah Johnston contributed to this report.