Viva Cantina Presents Gender-Bending Troy Walker

Jonny Whiteside

Located next to the Los Angeles Equestrian Center at the Burbank-Glendale border, Cody Bryant’s Viva Cantina has made an amazing leap from a cherished neighborhood dining retreat to a vibrant live music venue with great food to enjoy. The rambling old Mexican restaurant features two separate showrooms presenting a wide variety of live musical entertainment, often occurring simultaneously, seven nights a week.

The restaurant first opened in 1961 and still delights generations of faithful local patrons, many of whom grew up amongst the comfortable old school red leather banquettes. Viva’s co-owner, Cody Bryant, as a musician himself, has a considerable prowess, developed a freewheeling, free admission music policy which has taken on a life of its own. Presenting a remarkable array of genres spanning groups, many of whom have settled in for popular indefinite residency engagements, Viva is the definition of never-a-dull-moment.

Big bands play every Wednesday and Friday. There are regular country, rockabilly and garage rock shows each weekend. There are plenty of live jazz from such internationally renowned luminaries as John Pisano and Bruce Forman, even (full disclosure) this writer’s once a month Messaround showcase which features friendly, invited guest appearances from classic 1950’s pop crooners to vintage ‘77-era punk rockers to teenage bands giving their first ever performances.

Monday nights typify Viva’s spacious approach to entertainment; in the front cantina, they have their high ceiling, exposed beams, rustic tile and massive mounted taxidermy buffalo head. Playing there is the first rate bluegrass band, The Brombies. Being led by multi-instrumental virtuoso George Doering (a top, in-demand Hollywood movie soundtrack session player) has been packing the room for over seven years. In the rear, Riverside Rancho Room, with its shadowy lounge atmosphere, you’ll find Troy Walker, one of Los Angeles’ greatest and longest running natural musical resources—category weird.

Walker ruled the Sunset Strip nightclub circuit 5O years ago, with a high impact, gender bending, and drastically ribald style that routinely drew SRO crowds. Walker is a both a show-stopping entertainer and “singer’s singer.” His following on the Strip was studded with a loyal celebrity following that included as Elvis Presley, Louella Parsons, Ethel Merman, Gregory Peck, Mae West and Ronald Reagan (who once hired the singer to perform at Reagan’s Santa Barbara ranch).

Now 76 years of age, Walker’s passion, involvement, and flawless execution are as indisputably arresting as ever. A historic, albeit inadvertent, pre-Stonewall symbol of Way Out equality, Walker’s take no prisoners candor drove him to include a smoldering version of “Happiness is a Thing Called Joe” on his prized Live at the Crescendo LP and later–against all odds– allowed him to become a beloved 1970’s fixture at redneck C&W shrine at the Palomino.

“I’ve played just about everywhere in Los Angeles over the years and Viva is right up on top. It’s a classy place, and they run a real neat business,” Walker said. “It’s a little smaller than a lot of other places, but in my opinion they do a first rate job. Cody is something else. He is a prize. He is as sweet, kind, and giving as anyone can possibly be.”

In performance, Walker, clad in eye popping outfits accented by a swarm of boas and glittery scarves, struts and leaps from number to number with an accelerated pace that’s frenetic and fascinating. At times he switches gears so fast it’s almost like a 45-minute medley, with most of the songs enjoying red-hot satirical re-writes characterized by the wickedest of risqué humor. Then, suddenly he’ll turn around and deliver a straight, passionate old ballad that will move his audience to tears.

“I’ve been there almost four years and it has built into a wonderful, steady every-other Monday thing,” Walker said. “It’s going fine, especially now that Cody is back on the bandstand with me. We have a lot of fun, a good band. I like to jump around from song to song. Well, now we can jump almost anywhere from throughout the ages and we do that quite a bit. I’m grabbing things from out of my past that I haven’t done in a quite a while. We are all really jumping now.”

Before this Viva engagement, Walker hadn’t publicly performed for over a decade. But the word steadily spread and his nights quickly become a specific destination and a truly wild event. Fans have flown in from as far as Texas and they’re often as colorful as the singer himself. A typical Walker audience usually includes a small army of 70-some people, dressed-to-nines ladies. Some to which would include one a very tiny, very buxom dwarf, another a synthetic platinum blonde sporting a big black eye patch and another, lanky, whopping, hollering and singing along, all of it accentuated by her waist length gold tinsel wig.

“So many old friends have come in,” Walker said. ”The guys from my old band Flipside backed me one night. And a bunch of my old drummers, Spider Webb, who played on my Live at the Crescendo album, he showed up. Thumper, who was with Diana Ross for nine years, he came in. At 76 years old, frankly, I’m a little surprised that I have so many who are still around. I am also very grateful that I didn’t lose this voice. Thank God for all of it.”

Troy Walker appears at Cody Bryant’s Viva Cantina, 900 W Riverside Dr., Burbank, Mondays, Oct. 13 & 20, 8 & 9:30 p.m. Free admission. www.vivacantina.com