REVIEW

HOLDING A NOTE (continued)
Chicago magazine
by Marcia Froelke Coburn

"That was a hard time," she says, "a time when I really had to reassess what I was doing personally and professionally." One immediate problem: The kitchen at the bar was failing (back then, it served dinner), in large part because Walker insisted on trying to serve too many kinds of cuisine simultaneously. The neon sign in the window then read INTERNATIONAL NEW AGE CUISINE. "I was ahead of my time," she says now. When the latest chef, John Collins, came to the bar, he laughed at the sign. "Where's Chef Yanni?" he asked>

The two were romantically involved, and Collins earned Walker's trust with his shrewd business decisions. "He is the love of my life," says Walker. "Eventually we decided to have our wonder baby." Emma, their daughter, is eight years old. Walker's sons are now 16, 21, and 22.

With Collins helping with the business, Walker was able to turn more of her energies back to her music. Last November, she launched her third CD, Change Is Good, on her own Underground Wonder Bar label. It is her first CD of all original music. (Her first album, All That I've Got I Gave to Music, was Janis Joplin covers; her second, Live in Paris, was a recorded concert.)

"It took me a long time to reach this point," says Walker. "Some of the songs in recent CD I started back in 1986. But I never lost sight of my goal."