About this artist
Joshua Ray Walker is a honky tonk singer who has made a name for himself singing about honky tonks. A vocalist and songwriter with a rich, clear voice, Walker made his reputation with a cycle of three albums based on characters who spend their nights at the same rowdy Texas bar where he established his talent for often witty, sometimes poignant, and always relatable tales of ordinary folks looking to escape their surroundings. Walker is also a gifted guitar player whose style encompasses roadhouse country and raunchy rock & roll. Walker earned praise from critics and Americana fans with his solo debut, 2019′s Wish You Were Here, the first album in a trilogy that continued with 2020′s Glad You Made It and 2021′s See You Next Time.
Joshua Ray Walker was born in Dallas, Texas in 1991. He grew up in the Casa Linda neighborhood on Dallas’ east side, a multicultural community where most of their neighbors were Hispanic and he was introduced to Tejano music. Walker’s grandfather was a bluegrass enthusiast who taught Joshua to play the banjo when he was just four years old. By the time he turned six, Walker was also playing acoustic guitar, and he taught himself to play country, blues, bluegrass, and classical styles. At 11, he got his first electric guitar, and was playing shows when he was still in junior high, with more adventurous sounds making their way into his repertoire after he discovered the White Stripes when he was 12.
Always a stocky youngster, Walker struggled with depression and bullying in his teens, often changing schools before he dropped out. As he struggled to make a living as a musician, he was often homeless, sleeping in his car or crashing on the couches of friends. He often worked part time at the bars where he played, getting a crash course in honky tonk life, and he began writing songs inspired by the people who showed up night after night. In addition to playing out as a headliner, Walker was also gigging frequently as lead guitarist with the Ottoman Turks, a band whose sound was a rowdy mix of garage punk, blues, and roots rock. Between the two projects, Walker was keeping up a busy schedule, playing over 280 gigs in 2017. While working with the Ottoman Turks, Walker crossed paths with John Pedigo, a musician, songwriter, and producer who offered to help him record some solo material. Before long, Pedigo was encouraging Walker to cut an album of his own, and Joshua got the idea to write and record a trilogy of albums inspired by honky tonk life and the often eccentric people he met from working and playing in bars, tied together by setting the stories in a bar about to go out of business.
Walker drew up a plan to release the albums in three consecutive years. The first, 2019′s Wish You Were Here, was produced by Pedigo and released by the Dallas-based indie label State Fair Records, though Walker chose not to tell listeners about the concept, letting fans figure it out for themselves. The album got good reviews and word of mouth began to spread. The second installment, Glad You Made It, came out on schedule, though it arrived at a difficult time — the COVID-19 pandemic cost him his primary income from playing gigs, he fought a respiratory infection, and after a pipe burst at his home and destroyed most of his possessions, he ended up spending close to a year living in a cheap hotel. However, the reaction to the album was enthusiastic, and Rolling Stone named it one of the year’s best country releases. Despite his troubles, Walker met his self-imposed deadline for the final LP in the honky tonk trilogy, and See You Next Time arrived in October 2021. ~ Mark Deming