b. 18 May 1949, Oakland, California, USA. The brother of Edwin Hawkins, who enjoyed huge success with his hit single "Oh Happy Day', Walter Hawkins is a gospel singer with strong family connections to the gospel tradition. In addition to Edwin, his wife Tramaine is a singer, as are his sisters Carole, Freddie and Lynette. He is the cousin of Shirley Miller, while his younger brother Daniel and nephew Joe Smith also play with the family group under his stewardship. After graduating from Berklee College Of Music with a Master of Divinity degree, Edwin founded the Love Center church in 1975 and became an ordained minister and pastor of the Church of God in Christ. These activities eventually led to him proposing the idea of releasing an album. In what he later claimed to be an impulsive decision, he contacted friend Andrae Crouch and Light Records president Bill Cole. Love Alive followed as his debut release, the most distinctive feature being the excellent vocal interplay between Hawkins and his wife. Subsequent albums, including Jesus Christ Is The Way and Love Alive II, saw him garlanded with numerous awards from Cash Box magazine as well as a 1979 Grammy nomination for Best Soul Gospel Performance, Contemporary. Hawkins" catalogue was revitalised in the new millennium, with a number of reissues and an all new recording in 2005.

Listen to Walter Hawkins at Finetune.

• (2005)  A Song In My Heart

• Thank You
• A Prayer Away
• It's Right And Good
• Faithfully
• For Who You Are

• Yolanda Adams
• Donnie McClurkin
• Fred Hammond
• Kirk Franklin
• Mary Mary
• Hezekiah Walker
• Marvin Sapp
• CeCe Winans
• The New Life Community Choir Featuring John P. Kee
• Tye Tribbett & G.A.
• Byron Cage
• Tramaine Hawkins
• The Clark Sisters
• Smokie Norful
• Fred Hammond & Radical For Christ
• Richard Smallwood & Vision
• Kirk Franklin and the Family
• The Winans
• Vanessa Bell Armstrong
• Richard Smallwood

• dander50
• rainbowrocker
• MyDen
• missjoy