For truly diverse musical stylings, you may want to check out Walty.

John Walter, the brains behind the California-based operation, started taking guitar lessons when I was eight-years-old after seeing "A Hard Day's Night" on TV. He grew up in Illinois and is currently the front man of 80's cover band "Tainted Love", which pays his bills. In addition, he is finishing up his Master's Degree in Social Work at San Francisco State University.

But its his latest production, "Haight Street Bus Ride" that caught my attention.

Walter's wife, Brett Abramson, sings lead on several songs and some of the Bay Area's finest musicians filling out the instrumentation, Walty is not nearly a solo project. Chock full of different genres and guest musicians (Matt Nathanson and David Hopkins contributed, just to name a few), the debut CD "Haight Street Bus Ride" is a nice blend. The combo of pure pop style, country melodies and laidback funk is the perfect soundtrack for a California day. Or even one in, say, New Jersey.

Walty came together out of a song writing collaboration with friend John Bartkowiak, who is a painter and writer in San Francisco.

"I had the chords and melody to "California" (which is on the cd Haight Street Bus Ride) and he offered to help write the lyrics. We've been writing together ever since," Walter said. His nickname, Walty, then became the band's name.

My interest was sparked after hearing the album and digging through the linear notes to see who contributed. There I saw Hopkins and Nathanson mentioned, and became more intrigued at the alliance

"I met Matt and David doing a bass session for one of Matt's cds a while back. I was lucky enough to coax them into playing on the Walty CD," Walter explained. "I still work with David quite a bit, playing bass on his CDs and having him play keys on my demos."

Walter said he plans to keep writing and recording, and play his songs for as many people as possible. Currently, Walter is listening to Jet, The Shins and Aqualung, and playing gigs whenever he can.

I guess this group is easily summed up in one of my interview questions with Walter.

"How would you describe your sound?" I asked.

"I try not to," he answered. How appropriate.

There is no one way to identify this group's genre. Because of their fun, intelligent musical stylings, this makes Walty deserving of the "featured artist" spotlight.

For more information visit: www.waltymusic.com