Jerry Jeff Walker

Walker worked between 1942 and 2020 across street artist, singer, songwriter, composer and musician. The registers place that work in country rock. This article rests on 98 catalogued compositions, 2 published texts, 56 issued recordings, 7 digitised documents and 7 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

• Name — Jerry Jeff Walker • Birth Name — Ronald Clyde Crosby • Alias — Gypsy Songman • Birthplace — Oneonta, New York, U.S. • Born — 16 March 1942 • Died — 23 October 2020 • Place of death — Austin, Texas, U.S. • Instrument — Vocals, guitar, harmonica • Genre — * Progressive country • outlaw country • folk • Occupation — Singer-songwriter • Years Active — 1967–2020 • Label — Vanguard, Atco, Tried & True • Website — jerryjeff.com

Walker was born Ronald Clyde Crosby in Oneonta, New York, on March 16, 1942. His father, Mel, worked as a sports referee and bartender; his mother, Alma (Conrow), was a housewife. His maternal grandparents played for square dances in the Oneonta area – his grandmother, Jessie Conrow, playing piano, while his grandfather played fiddle. During the late 1950s, Crosby was a member of a local Oneonta teen band called the Tones. After high school, Crosby joined the National Guard, but his thirst for adventure led him to go AWOL, and he was eventually discharged. He went on to roam the country busking for a living in New Orleans and throughout Texas, Florida, and New York, often accompanied by H. R. Stoneback (a friendship referenced in 1970's Stoney). He first played under the stage name of Jerry Ferris, then Jeff Walker, before amalgamating them into Jerry Jeff Walker and legally changing his name to that in the late 1960s.

Walker spent his early folk music days in Greenwich Village in the mid-1960s. He co-founded a band with Bob Bruno in the late 1960s called Circus Maximus that put out two albums, one with the popular FM radio hit "Wind", but Bruno's interest in jazz apparently diverged from Walker's interest in folk music. Walker thus resumed his solo career and recorded the seminal 1968 album Mr. Bojangles with the help of David Bromberg and other influential Atlantic recording artists. He settled in Austin, Texas, in the 1970s, associating mainly with the outlaw country scene that included artists such as Michael Martin Murphey, Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, Waylon Jennings, and Townes Van Zandt. "Jerry Jeff's train songs" (such as "Desperados Waiting for a Train") were cited in the lyrics of Jennings and Nelson's 1977 hit song "Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)". On September 28, 1974, Walker appeared with Doug Sahm at the Main Hall of Carnegie Hall. A string of records for MCA and Elektra followed Walker's move to Austin, before he gave up on the mainstream music business and formed his own independent record label. Tried & True Music was founded in 1986, with his wife Susan as president and manager. Susan also founded Goodknight Music as his management company and Tried & True Artists for his bookings. A series of increasingly autobiographical records followed under the Tried & True imprint, which also sells his autobiography, Gypsy Songman. In 2004, Walker released his first DVD of songs from his past performed in an intimate setting in Austin. Walker married Susan Streit in 1974 in Travis County, Texas. They had two children: a son, Django Walker, who is also a musician, and a daughter Jessie Jane. Walker had a retreat on Ambergris Caye in Belize, where he recorded his Cowboy Boots and Bathing Suits album in 1998. He also made a guest appearance on Ramblin' Jack Elliott's 1998 album of duets Friends of Mine, singing "He Was a Friend of Mine" and Woody Guthrie's "Hard Travelin'". Walker recorded songs written by others such as "L.A. Freeway" (Guy Clark), "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother" (Ray Wylie Hubbard), "(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night" (Tom Waits), and "London Homesick Blues" (Gary P. Nunn). He also interpreted the songs of others such as Rodney Crowell, Townes Van Zandt, Paul Siebel, Bob Dylan, Todd Snider, Dave Roberts, and even a rodeo clown named Billy Jim Baker. Walker was given the moniker of "the Jimmy Buffett of Texas". Walker was who first drove Jimmy Buffett to Key West (from Coconut Grove, Florida in a Packard). The two musicians also co-wrote the song "Railroad Lady" while riding the last run of the Panama Limited.

Walker's "Mr. Bojangles" (1968) is perhaps his best-known and most-often performed song. It is about an obscure but talented alcoholic tap-dancing drifter who Walker had met who, when arrested and jailed in New Orleans, insisted on being identified only as "Bojangles". Notable recordings of the song include a live version by his bandmate Bromberg on his album Demon in Disguise, a single by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band that charted at number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971 (also released on their album Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy), and its inclusion in medley on the 1974 debut self-titled album by Jim Stafford.

Walker had an annual birthday celebration in Austin at the Paramount Theatre and at Gruene Hall in Gruene, Texas. The party brought some of the biggest names in country music out for a night of picking and swapping stories. He died from throat cancer on October 23, 2020, at a hospital in Austin, Texas, at the age of 78.

Source: AllMusic • Year — Album — Chart positions — Label • US Country — US — AUS — CAN Country • 1967 — Circus Maximus — Vanguard • 1968 — Neverland Revisited • Mr. Bojangles — Atco • 1969 — Driftin' Way of Life — Vanguard • Five Years Gone — Atco • 1970 — Bein' Free • 1973 — Jerry Jeff Walker — 208 — 48 — MCA • Viva Terlingua — 160 • 1974 — Walker's Collectibles — 141 • 1975 — Ridin' High — 14 — 119 • 1976 — It's a Good Night for Singin — 18 — 84 • 1977 — A Man Must Carry On — 13 — 60 • 1978 — Contrary to Ordinary'Contrary to Ordinary also peaked at No. 99 on the RPM Top Albums chart in Canada. — 25 — 111 — 3 • 1978 — Jerry Jeff — 43 — 206 — Elektra/Asylum • 1979 — Too Old to Change • 1980 — The Best of JJW — 57 — 185 — 21 — MCA • 1981 — Reunion — 188 • 1982 — Cowjazz • 1987 — Gypsy Songman DoLP — Sawdust Records • 1987 — Gypsy Songman — T&TM/Ryko • 1989 — Live at Gruene Hall • 1991 — Navajo Rug — 59 • Great Gonzos — MCA • 1992 — Hill Country Rain — T&TM/Ryko • 1994 — Viva Luckenbach • Christmas Gonzo Style • 1995 — Night After Night — T&TM • 1996 — Scamp • 1998 — Cowboy Boots & Bathing Suits • Lone Wolf: Elektra Sessions — Warner Bros. • 1999 — Best of the Vanguard Years — Vanguard • Gypsy Songman: A Life in Song — T&TM • 2001 — Gonzo Stew • Jerry Jeff Walker: Ultimate Collection — Hip-O Records • 2003 — Jerry Jeff Jazz — T&TM • 2004 — The One and Only • 2009 — Moon Child • 2018 — It's About Time

Source: AllMusic, unless otherwise stated. • Year — Single — Chart Positions — Album • US Country — US — AUS • 1968 — "Mr. Bojangles""Mr. Bojangles" also peaked at No. 51 on the RPM Top Singles chart in Canada. — 77 — 22 — Mr. Bojangles • 1972 — "L.A. Freeway" — 98 — 98 — Jerry Jeff Walker • 1973 — "Desperados Waiting for a Train" — Viva Terlingua • "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother" • 1975 — "Jaded Lover" — 54 — Ridin' High • 1976 — "It's a Good Night for Singing"/"Dear John Letter Lounge" — 88 — It's a Good Night for Singing • 1977 — "Mr. Bojangles" (Live) — 93 — A Man Must Carry On • 1981 — "Got Lucky Last Night" — 82 — Reunion • 1989 — "I Feel Like Hank Williams Tonight" — 70 — Live at Gruene Hall • "The Pickup Truck Song" — 62 • "Trashy Women" — 63 • 1994 — "Keep Texas Beautiful" — Single only

Jerry Jeff Walker was born on 16 March 1942 in Oneonta. Walker held the nationality of United States. Walker worked as street artist, singer, songwriter and composer, and the authority record catalogues a further 1 occupations under the same name, among them musician. Walker was active from 1967 to 2018. The fields Walker worked in include country rock. Walker played the electric guitar, the voice, the acoustic guitar and the harmonica. Walker worked in English. Walker died on 23 October 2020 in Austin. Walker is buried at Texas State Cemetery.