Whenever I work with walnut, I wonder why I ever work with anything else
Looks nice, smells nice, good medium density and hardness, and doesn't have interlocked grain so it works easily with edge tools, and it bends more easily than any other wood... and on top of all that, it's cheap and sustainable (as long as the walnut twig beetle doesn't wipe it out). The only thing I don't like is the relatively high humidity expansion rate. But at least it's tough, so it doesn't tend to crack even if the back does turn inside out in the winter.
