Concerts at Happy Days Lodge: Austin Walkin' Cane

Join us at Happy Days Lodge to immerse yourself in the blues with Austin Walkin’ Cane, singer, songwriter and slide guitarist.

Damn Fine Blues! Original & classic delta blues featuring slide guitar and soulful vocals. A blues gumbo repertoire that can conjure up the ghosts of highway 61 & the delta blues experience. Austin Walkin’ Cane is a blues singer, songwriter and slide guitarist that performs acoustic solo, duo & electric band sets. Austin Walkin’ Cane has toured Australia, Nepal, Colombia, France, Germany, England, Wales, and the US, from New Orleans, Louisiana to Juneau, Alaska with only a guitar & suitcase in hand.

Austin walked for ten years with a cane due to an arterial venous malformation at birth. While performing on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, a homeless man called out “Hey Walkin’ Cane got some spare change for a brother?!” Austin took the jibe as his nickname. In 1996, after years of battling the inevitable, his left leg was amputated below the knee. A year after the surgery, he returned to the music scene stronger & without need of a cane.

AWC’s 2008 cd, M**der of a Blues Singer, was inspired by an after hour diner conversation with blues legend Robert Jr. Lockwood. “The stories were flowing like the grease off our plates”, subsequently the album is saturated in classic delta blues, as were the tales of Lockwood’s stepfather, Robert Johnson. Mr. Lockwood had agreed to perform on the record, but fate had changed that path. The Walkin’ Cane Band captured the perfect “live in the studio” feeling that Austin & co-writer Chris Allen had envisioned for these songs. The band is a well-oiled machine. Special guests on M**der of a Blues Singer include Colin Dussault, Eroc Sosinski and one of Cleveland’s finest gospel groups, the Prayer Warriors. M**der of a Blues Singer was re-released on Germany’s Hoboville Records in 2023.

In 2011, an acoustic cd, A World Of Blues, was released. The Allen/Charanghat original songs were recorded live at the Brothers Lounge as a testament to Walkin’ Cane living on the road. The album uses excerpts of Austin’s world travels in addition to the show recorded in the heart of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame city.

During the summer of 2014, One Heart Walkin‘ was recorded in two days at the historic G.A.R. Hall in Peninsula, OH. Built in 1850, the former schoolhouse & Civil War Veteran’s hangout, set the perfect mood for this album. Listening to Cane’s most recent album is like being a passenger on the old Illinois Central Railroad. These “Damn Fine Blues”, take the listener from the south side of Chicago, through the deep south of the Mississippi Delta. You’ll stop in Memphis, Clarksdale & Bentonia, and ride to the end of the line of New Orleans, Louisiana.

All of the songs on One Heart Walkin‘ were co-written with songwriter and grade school friend, Chris Allen. The album of Allen/Charanghat originals came to life with the help of legendary producer & bassist Don Dixon, harmonica extraordinaire Dave Morrison, Allen on acoustic guitar, Freddie Perez-Stable on drums & members of the Revolution Brass Band, bringing in the sound of New Orleans.

Doors open at 7:00PM | Music begins at 7:30PM

TICKETS

Conservancy Members: $20 | General Admission: $25

VENUE
Open Seating | Cash Bar

Host or Publisher The Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park