In 1960 Wee Willie Walker was a member of the gospel group The Redemption Harmonizers. After relocating in Minnesota he would often return to Memphis and in 1968 he recorded nine secular “sides” for Goldwax Records. Four of these were leased to Checker Records a subsidiary of Chess. Two of his singles were “You Name It, I’ve Had It”, and “From Warm to Cool, to Cold”. Although recognized as gems of the soul music genre these singles were known only to a few. In 1987 Walker opened for John Lee Hooker when Hooker was backed by the local twin cities soul and R n’ B band The Butanes. For the last ten years Walker has kept busy by performing and recording three albums with The Butanes the last being 2011’s “Long Time Thing””. Two years ago Julia Schroeder, Walker’s manager, introduced Walker to Rick Estrin. Estrin realized that Walker’s voice was still as strong as ever and that he was one of those great soul-singers that just did not make it. His idea was to record a new album for Walker at Kid Anderson’s Greaseland studios. Estrin and Anderson quickly enlisted Jimmy Pugh to play keyboards. Collectively they realized that the production of this new studio recording would be a costly venture but it wasn’t about the money. It was about making some beautiful new music with Walker and furthering this nearly extinct genre. It was Pugh’s idea to create The Little Village Foundation to search out, discover and record music that otherwise would not be heard. The band includes J. Hansen