Rock stars are supposed to be brooding, withdrawn, pretentious, rude and tortured. Rock stars are not supposed to be hopelessly polite, be quick with a handshake and a “sir,” or be genuinely humbled by their faithful audience.

Walk, a 23-year-old singer-songwriter from Girard, is all the things rock stars aren’t.

Good thing he doesn’t want to be one.

“I don’t really see that happening,” Walk says, shrugging off a question about his superstar aspirations. “That worries me sometimes - when you do get to a place like that, you know, I don’t want to lose my inspiration and not have the ability to write.”

For now, the senior communications major at the University of Illinois at Springfield is content to strum his high-end Martin acoustic guitar every Tuesday night at 11 West, a downtown bar on the corner of Fifth and Adams streets.

His three-hour solo sets compete with the clink of beer bottles, the crash of shattered glasses, the buzz of drinkers and the peal of ringtones. There are times, though, such as during the wrenching chorus of “Awake,” when the clamor suddenly fades, the cloud of cigarette smoke seems to clear and folks just listen to the kid bathed in the yellow spotlight.

Please take back what you said about me/My heart is a fragile thing I don’t want to break/And I rethink my thoughts on things/Life with you was a dream/But now I’m awake

Those are the moments Walk cherishes. Even when, as on a recent Tuesday, a rowdy drifter wanders in from the street and breaks the delicate silence by loudly proclaiming his love for everyone in the room. Rock stars would have been irritated by the ruined moment. Walk just cracks a smile and keeps singing.

“Right now I play for me,” he says. “The fact that people like to listen to me is just really sweet icing on the cake.”

Walk grew up in the days when Seattle was king and every flannel shirt in the school hallway had a band. Walk cut his teeth on grunge and electric guitars, but eventually was lured - largely by the Dave Matthews Band - to the more sensitive world of acoustic music.

Walk quit the Girard High School football team before his junior year, wanting the extra time to play guitar and write songs. When he was confident enough in a tune, he might’ve sung it for a girlfriend, but only if she sat in the corner and faced away from him.

The bigger the crowd, Walk explains, the less intense the emotional connection with the audience.

“Sometimes if I’m sitting at my dad’s and he asks me to sing something, I can’t do it,” he says. “Or at Christmas, we’re gathered around and they’ll ask me to sing a song. I will, but it’s not the same - I can’t just belt out like I would (on stage).”

Only last summer did Walk build up the nerve to test Springfield’s bar scene. He was singing at open mikes downtown when 11 West owner Jim Wavering took notice and offered the Tuesday residency.

For several months Walk has played inside the bar’s front window, with the Old State Capitol looming over his right shoulder. And to Walk’s surprise, the crowds have begun to swell, slowly but surely, as word-of-mouth spreads.

“I’m pretty critical about the songs that I write,” he says. “I don’t really think a lot of them are that great, but some people think differently.”

Musically, Dave Matthews is the easy comparison. Walk has mastered Matthews’s tenor howl, and Walk favors Matthews’ off-kilter phrasing. But just as pervasive are hints of Irish troubadour Damien Rice and songwriter Ryan Adams - both of whom Walk frequently covers - as well as the jazzy inflections of John Mayer and the old-soul lyricism of Howie Day.

All are apparent on Walk’s debut album, “Nothing In Between,” which he recorded with a band that he met through his

Sunday performances at Abundant Life Church in Auburn. He hopes to release that compact disc soon, along with a five-song acoustic EP.

Walk admits he knows little about the music business. And he realizes that Springfield can only take him so far, but he’s unsure how to take his act elsewhere.

“I do plan on, after graduation, taking off for a while and just driving around and playing,” he says. “I don’t know exactly how that’ll work, either. You know, I guess I’ll buy a bigger vehicle. Maybe I’ll try to set up some real gigs; maybe not. Maybe I’ll just play outside of baseball fields.”

Until then, Walk will play Tuesdays at 11 West, with opening slots and detours to other clubs here and there. He’ll make tongue-in-cheek attempts at cliched stage banter and wander down between sets to greet the familiar faces.

He’ll just be happy to be there. And even happier that you’re there with him.

Daniel Pike can be reached at 788-1532 or daniel.pike@sj-r.com.

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Micah Walk

When: Walk plays 8-11 p.m. every Tuesday
Where: 11 West, 11 W. Old State Capitol Plaza
When: Wednesday, Walk opens for Chicago bands The Station and 56 Hope Road.
Where: Mojo’s (formerly Dempsey’s), 225 Monroe St.
Tickets: $5.
Web: Walk’s Web site, www.micahwalk.com, includes news, show dates and song downloads.

(Article reprinted with permission from the Illinois State-Journal Register.)

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