Cory Walker

Trevor called this the most anticipated episode he has ever had. It took about a year to line up.

A family band from central Florida

Cory Walker grew up in a house full of pickers. His father plays banjo, and both of Cory's younger brothers play too. The records came first. Before he could talk, he was hearing the New Grass Revival, Muleskinner, Tony Rice, John Hartford, Norman Blake and Peter Rowan, along with plenty of Earl Scruggs and Bill Monroe.

At seven he started lessons at the Bluegrass Parlor, a music store in Temple Terrace, near Tampa. By 11 he was the banjo player in the store's band, The Bluegrass Parlor Band, with his brothers on mandolin and guitar. He also studied guitar and a bit of music theory, the part that showed him how music works when you open it up and look inside.

Florida, he points out, has a real bluegrass scene, from Lakeland on up to the Georgia line. Trips to IBMA and the Smithville Fiddlers' Jamboree widened his circle. Around 13 or 14, he noticed that most of his friends were musicians, and it hit him that he could just do this for a living.

"It's not really helpful to be competitive against others. So it's really a competition with yourself."

Playing with his heroes

At Smithville, around age 11, he first heard a young Sierra Hull warming up backstage and could not believe anyone that young sounded that good. He later joined her band, Sierra Hull and Highway 111, as a teenager. She would fly him in on weekends. He played on her 2008 Rounder album Secrets, which also features Tony Rice.

He earned a business degree at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, gigging the whole way. After college he moved to Nashville and worked as a sideman with Nashville Brigade and Mountain Heart, among others. One Mountain Heart show featured Tony Rice. Standing on stage with Rice, Cory says, was one of the coolest things ever.

"There's something he does that makes the music dance on its own. It breathes life into everything."

The other story that holds up next to that one came earlier. At about 14, Cory was one of a group of young players on an ABC television special that ended with them on stage with Earl Scruggs and Ricky Skaggs at the Tennessee Titans' stadium. The best part happened backstage, where Earl and Cory played together, just the two of them, for about an hour. Cory remembers him as generous with his time.

East Nash Grass

After years as a sideman, East Nash Grass is the first band where Cory has ownership. He likes that everybody in the band has a veto, and that the songs are ones they all believe in. He named it, too. He had been booking gigs around town with whoever was free, including a regular spot at Arrington Vineyards, and needed a name. It was East Nashville bluegrass, so it became East Nash Grass.

From there the band grew out of a long Monday-night residency at Dee's Country Cocktail Lounge in Madison, just outside Nashville. The moment it turned into a real band came in 2020, a few days into recording their first album at guitarist Jake Stargel's home studio. Cory remembers thinking that they could do this, as its own thing. The self-titled record came out in 2021.

"There's a greater reward to building something yourself."

Last Chance to Win followed in 2023, recorded at the Tractor Shed in Goodlettsville, a studio Mark Howard built in a shed behind Grandpa Jones's old home. On Harry Clark's "Scarlet Iris," the banjo has a grittier sound. That is a low-tuned banjo with heavier strings, and it belonged to John Hartford. It was sitting in the studio closet when Cory said he wished he had one.

"It colors the songs in a special way. It changes what comes out of you."

East Nash Grass won IBMA New Artist of the Year in 2024. All God's Children came out on Mountain Fever Records in 2025 and picked up an IBMA Album of the Year nomination in 2026, along with nods for Entertainer and Instrumental Group of the Year. In spring 2026, Frank Rische took over guitar from founding member James Kee.

Why has the East Nash lamb never grown into a sheep? Because the band is young and helpless, Cory says, and needs nurturing from the fans.

Earl's guitar at the Ryman

In July 2025, East Nash Grass played Bluegrass Nights at the Ryman Auditorium. Cory set down the banjo and played Earl Scruggs's 1957 guitar on "Let the Church Roll On." When he heard that the guitar had not been on the Ryman stage since Earl played it, the nerves showed up. He tries to keep that weight out of the way. The best music, he says, comes when he stops watching himself play.

"If you want it to sound great, you have to, as best as you can, dissolve into it, to where you can't remember what happened after you get done with the song."

Side projects

With his brothers and friends including Christian Ward, Cory plays in the Suwannee Mountain Boys. Their short December 2025 run took them to the Basement East in Nashville, Intuition Ale Works in Jacksonville and Cage Brewing in St. Petersburg. He also plays banjo in Section House, an instrumental band with Aaron Ramsey, Bryan McDowell, Jake Stargel and Jeff Partin. He and Harry Clark have recorded a songwriters' project with Christian Ward.

His stage banter with Harry Clark is real, he says. They are friends, and they talk to each other on stage the way friends do.