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Seth Walker plays the blues, but his life has been anything but sad.

Between the ages of 3 and 17, Walker and his dad, mom and sister shared a seven-bedroom home with the Waltons , another family who occupied several acres of farmland in Altamahaw-Ossipee , a small town near Burlington.

And yes, the Austin,Texas-based guitar player knows the name of his childhood home is difficult to pronounce.

"When people ask where I am from, I don't even tell them that," Walker says during a phone interview. He laughs, adding, "I usually just say Burlington or something."

Walker speaks in an almost gravelly baritone. Not quite Johnny Cash, but rustic enough to let strangers know he's spent a good many of his days singing on the road. He'll return home this week when he plays a show as part of the Eastern Music Festival's Fringe Series.

"I've got a pretty hectic schedule," Walker says. "But I'm hoping I'll have some time to get some home-cooked barbecue, grab a biscuit from Biscuitville and play some music with my family."

'It was a hippie time'

Walker gladly admits that his family was unique.

His parents, both classical musicians, befriended Susan Walton and her husband while attending a Quaker retreat.

"We just started hanging out with them a lot, and we started talking about moving onto some land where we could grow vegetables and have a farm," says Carole Shoaf , Walker's mom. "That's how it all started, actually.

"We were going to build two houses, and then we decided that we were just going to build one big house, and that's what we did."

Shoaf, her former husband, Scott Walker, and the Waltons built their home by themselves out of wooden logs and 40-pound concrete blocks.

"It was a beautiful place. There was a barn, 10 acres of land, and we had pigs at one point," Seth Walker says. "It was a hippie time, early '70s."

With essentially four parents, his sister, and the Waltons' three children all living under the same roof, there was seldom a time when the young Walker was starved for attention. Susan Walton, who calls herself Walker's "quasi-mom," says that when the bluesman was a child, he would often entertain his household with jokes and impersonations.

"We always just thought he was just the cutest little thing in the world, so everything that he did was cute and praised and appreciated," Walton says. "I think that helped him to build his confidence growing up."

From the cello to the guitar

The blues guitarist studied the cello when he was a kid. His parents were music teachers who taught him and his sister how to play classical music via the Suzuki method.

"That's a method where they encourage parents to be a part of the lessons and be a part of the home practice," Shoaf says.

"So, it was part of our training in being a Suzuki family that we would get our instruments out together and start playing and have fun."

Shoaf and Walker's sister, Jenny, would play the violin while he practiced the cello with his father.

"He was never passionate about playing the cello," Scott Walker says. "He just did it for me."

"It wasn't like they forced it on me," Seth Walker says. "But what happened was I kind of got burnt out on it because it was something that I did for so long."

After many years of attending Suzuki music camps in the summer, Walker finally asked his parents if he could stop going.

"He told me one time, 'I just want to play at home with you, that's what I want to do,'" Scott Walker says.

During high school, Seth Walker traded his performing for visual art, something that didn't change until he went to East Carolina University.

One of the people who lived in Walker's dormitory owned a guitar. After messing around with it for a bit, Walker wanted a guitar, too.

"My mom loves this story: I used my East Carolina book money to buy my first guitar," Walker says. "Better than a tattoo."

"He said that he was going to quit school and become a musician," Shoaf says. "I was a musician. It was something I had done my entire life, so it was rather hard for me to say, 'Oh, don't do that!'

"So, I said, 'Oh that's fine, there are hundreds of dollars to be made in music.'"

Forming a musical identity

Eventually, Walker made his way to the musical city of Austin, Texas, where he earned his chops and climbed the ranks of its thriving scene.

"He's one of the most focused people I've ever known," Shoaf says. "He would have to be to get to the point where he is now."

Walker plays blues concerts across the country and has released four albums. However, it wasn't until he recorded "Seth Walker," his latest release, that he felt like he had any concept of his musical identity.

His first album was a straight blues release, but Walker says he drifted elsewhere for the albums in between.

"I was just trying to figure out where I was, who I was as an artist," Walker says. "The songs were anywhere from folky to rock to blues to gospel to all kind of different things."

But for "Seth Walker," the musician's first and only self-titled record, Walker gladly made a return to the bluesy roots sound that had gotten away from him in previous records.

The album features 11 tracks about women who loved him ("Steady"), plus at least one who didn't ("Miss Ann"). Walker also covered the Tom Waits song "Picture in a Frame."

He says he had never really listened to Waits until a couple hired him to play the song for a wedding.

"I was embarrassed to say that I knew a bit about Tom Waits, but I didn't listen to him very much and wasn't into him yet," Walker says. "Then this hip couple requested that song.

"That was probably the only song I was asked to play at a wedding that actually stayed in my set list."

What about the other songs Walker has played at weddings?

"We always get requests for 'Brown-Eyed Girl,' and I love Van Morrison, I really do, but that one needs to be left alone," Walker says.

"I remember I even got a request for Enya. What was I going to do with that? Play some blues Enya?"Joe Scott is a freelance contributor. Contact him at movieshowjoe@gmail.com.