- Jerry Jeff Walker
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Jerry Jeff Walker 
Jerry Jeff Walker, 2002Background information Birth name Ronald Clyde Crosby Also known as Gypsy Songman Born March 16, 1942 Genres Country Music
Outlaw CountryOccupations Country music artist Instruments Electric Guitar
Acoustic GuitarYears active 1967–present Labels Tried & True Music Associated acts Lost Gonzo Band
Jimmy Buffett
Django WalkerWebsite www.jerryjeff.com Jerry Jeff Walker (born March 16, 1942) is an American country music singer and songwriter. He is probably most famous for writing the song "Mr. Bojangles.[1]
Contents
Biography
Walker was born Ronald Clyde Crosby in Oneonta, New York.[2] His maternal grandparents played for square dances in the area, with his grandmother, Jessie Conroe, playing piano, and her husband playing fiddle. During the late-1950s, Crosby was a member of a local Oneonta teen band called The Tones. The band traveled to Philadelphia to audition for Dick Clark's American Bandstand, but were turned down. Members of the band found Dick Clark's house and were able to get a recommendation to audition at New York City's Baton Records through the company's lead producer Sol Rabinowitz. The band was given a recording contract, but the studio wanted a quintet backed by studio musicians, which left Crosby and another member (Jerry Russell) out of their recordings.
After high school, Crosby joined the National Guard, but his thirst for adventure led him to go AWOL and 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 played mostly ukulele until Harriet Ottenheimer, one of the founders of The Quorum, got him settled on a guitar in 1963. He adopted his stage name "Jerry Jeff Walker" in 1966. He 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 west coast 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 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 country outlaw scene that included artists such as Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, Waylon Jennings, and Townes Van Zandt.
"Mr. Bojangles" (written by Walker) is perhaps his most well-known and most-often covered song.[2] It was about an obscure alcoholic but talented tap-dancing drifter, (not the famous stage and movie dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, as usually assumed, nor was it about New Orleans blues musician Babe Stovall), a friend of Walker's. In his autobiography 'Gypsy Songman', Walker makes it clear the man he met was white. Further, in an interview with BBC Radio 4 in August 2008, he pointed out that at the time the jail cells in New Orleans were segregated along color lines, so his influence could not have been black. Bojangles is thought to have been a folk character who entertained informally in the south of the US and California, with authentic reports of him existing from the 1920s through about 1965. Artists from Neil Diamond to Nina Simone, Bob Dylan, Philip Glass, Tom T. Hall, Jim Stafford, Sammy Davis Jr., Lulu (New Routes), Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and recently Robbie Williams, have covered the song. Walker has also recorded songs written by others such as "LA Freeway" (Guy Clark), "Up Against the Wall Red Neck Mother" (Ray Wylie Hubbard), "(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night" (Tom Waits) and London Homesick Blues (Gary P. Nunn).
A string of records for MCA and Elektra followed Jerry Jeff's move to Austin, Texas, 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. Tried & True also sells his autobiography called "Gypsy Songman". In 2004, Jerry Jeff released his first DVD of songs from his past as performed in an intimate setting in Austin.
He has interpreted the songs of others like Rodney Crowell, Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Keith Sykes, Paul Siebel, Bob Dylan, Todd Snider and even a rodeo clown named Billy Jim Baker. Some have called Jerry Jeff the Jimmy Buffett of Texas. Oddly enough, it was Jerry Jeff who first drove Jimmy Buffett to Key West (from Coconut Grove, Florida in a Packard). Walker and Buffett also co-wrote the song "Railroad Lady" while riding the last run of the Panama Limited.
Jerry married the former Susan Streit in 1974 in Travis County, Texas.[2] They have two children: a son, Django Walker, who is also a musician and a daughter, Jessie Jane. In addition to his residence in Austin, Walker has a retreat on Ambergris Caye in Belize where he recorded his "Cowboy Boots and Bathing Suits" album in 1998.
Walker has developed a style of music he calls "Cowjazz". The poignant “Eastern Avenue River Railway Blues,” is one of the best examples of this music. The song sounds like a cross between Bob Dylan and Harry Chapin, with lyrics that refer to the industrial area between Cincinnati's Eastern Avenue and the Ohio River, just south of the tony Mount Adams area.
Members of his band have varied over the years. The Lost Gonzo Band and the Gonzo Compadres have backed him in the past. Key members of his band have included John Inmon, Freddie Krc, Gary P. Nunn, Bob Livingston, Michael Clarke, Bobby Ray Rambo, Mitch Watkins, Steve Samuel, David Bromberg, Chris Gage (of Albert and Gage, Austin, TX), Brad Fordham and others. He is presumably the "Jerry Jeff" in the song Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love) when Willie Nelson sings,"Between Hank Williams pain songs / Jerry Jeff's train songs."
Jerry Jeff has an annual birthday celebration bash in Austin, Texas at the Paramount Theatre and at Gruene Hall in Gruene, Texas.[2] This party has become an enormous event in Texas and brings some of the biggest names in country music out for a night of picking and swapping stories under the Austin skyline. Jimmy Buffett attended the 2004 Birthday bash. His son Django also often accompanies him at these parties.
Discography
Albums
Year Album Chart Positions Label US Country US CAN Country 1967 Circus Maximus Vanguard 1968 Neverland Revisited Mr. Bojangles Atco 1969 Driftin' Way of Life Vanguard 1970 Five Years Gone Atco 1970 Bein' Free 1972 Jerry Jeff Walker 208 MCA 1973 Viva Terlingua 160 1974 Walker's Collectibles 141 1975 Ridin' High 14 119 1976 It's a Good Night for Singing 18 84 1977 A Man Must Carry On 13 60 1978 Contrary to OrdinaryA 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 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 - AContrary to Ordinary also peaked at #99 on the RPM Top Albums chart in Canada.
Singles
Year Single Chart Positions Album US Country US 1969 "Mr. Bojangles"A 77 Mr. Bojangles 1972 "L.A. Freeway" 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" 88 It's a Good Night for Singing "Dear John Letter Lounge" flip 1977 "Mr. Bojangles" (Live) 93 A Man Must Carry On 1981 "Got Lucky Last Night" 82 Single only 1989 "I Feel Like Hank Williams Tonight" 70 Live at Gruene Hall "The Pickup Truck Song" 62 "Trashy Women" 63 - A"Mr. Bojangles" also peaked at #51 on the RPM Top Singles chart in Canada.
References
- ^ Blount, Roy Jr. (May 1979). "Running Wild With Jerry Jeff". http://www.texasmonthly.com/1979-05-01/index.php. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
- ^ a b c d McGuire, Jim; Ferris, PhD. William (2007). Nashville Portraits: Legends Of Country Music. The Lyons Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-1599211688.
External links
Categories:- American country musicians
- American country singers
- American folk singers
- American male singers
- Texas country musicians
- American buskers
- 1942 births
- Living people
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