Jerry Jeff Walker
Walker in 2002
Background information
Also known as	Gypsy Songman
Born	Ronald Clyde Crosby (1942-03-16)March 16, 1942 Oneonta, New York, U.S.
Died	October 23, 2020(2020-10-23) (aged 78) Austin, Texas, U.S.
Genres	Progressive country[1] outlaw country[2] folk
Occupation	Singer-songwriter
Instrument(s)	Vocals, guitar, harmonica
Years active	1967–2018
Labels	Vanguard, Atco, Tried & True
Website	jerryjeff.com

Jerry Jeff Walker (bornRonald Clyde Crosby; March 16, 1942 – October 23, 2020)^[3] was an Americancountry andfolk singer-songwriter. He was a leading figure in theprogressive country andoutlaw country music movement. He is best known for writing the 1968 song "Mr. Bojangles".^[4]

Walker was born Ronald Clyde Crosby inOneonta, New York, on March 16, 1942. His father, Mel, worked as a sports referee and bartender; his mother, Alma (Conrow), was a housewife.^[5] His maternal grandparents played for square dances in the Oneonta area^[5] – 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.^[6]

After high school, Crosby joined the National Guard, but his thirst for adventure led him to goAWOL and he was eventually discharged.^[5][7] He went on to roam the countrybusking for a living inNew Orleans and throughout Texas, Florida, and New York, often accompanied byH. R. Stoneback (a friendship referenced in 1970's "Stoney").^[8] He first played under the stage name of Jerry Ferris, then Jeff Walker, before amalgamating them into Jerry Jeff Walker and legallychanging his name to that in the late 1960s.^[7]

Walker spent his earlyfolk music days inGreenwich Village in the mid-1960s.^[9] He co-founded a band with Bob Bruno in the late 1960s calledCircus Maximus that put out two albums,^[9] one with the popular FM radio hit "Wind", but Bruno's interest injazz apparently diverged from Walker's interest in folk music.^[9] Walker thus resumed his solo career and recorded the seminal 1968 albumMr. Bojangles with the help ofDavid Bromberg and other influentialAtlantic recording artists.^[10][11] He settled inAustin, Texas, in the 1970s, associating mainly with theoutlaw country scene that included artists such asMichael Martin Murphey,Willie Nelson,Guy Clark,Waylon Jennings,^[5] andTownes Van Zandt.^[12] "Jerry Jeff's train songs" (such asDesperados 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)".^[13] On September 28, 1974, Walker appeared withDoug Sahm at the Main Hall ofCarnegie Hall.

A string of records forMCA andElektra followed Walker's move toAustin, Texas,^[9] before he gave up on the mainstream music business and formed his own independent record label. Tried & True Music was founded in 1986,^[14] with his wife Susan as president and manager.^[15][16] Susan also founded Goodknight Music as his management company and Tried & True Artists for his bookings.^[15] A series of increasingly autobiographical records followed under the Tried & True imprint, which also sells his autobiography,Gypsy Songman.^[17] In 2004, Walker released his first DVD of songs from his past performed in an intimate setting in Austin.^[18]

Walker married Susan Streit in 1974 inTravis County, Texas.^[3] They had two children: a son,Django Walker, who is also a musician, and a daughter Jessie Jane.^[5] Walker had a retreat onAmbergris Caye in Belize, where he recorded hisCowboy Boots and Bathing Suits album in 1998.^[19] He also made a guest appearance onRamblin' Jack Elliott's 1998 album of duetsFriends of Mine,^[20] singing "He Was a Friend of Mine" andWoody Guthrie's "Hard Travelin'".^[21][22]

Walker recorded songs written by others such as "L.A. Freeway" (Guy Clark), "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother" (Ray Wylie Hubbard),^[5] "(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night" (Tom Waits),^[23] and "London Homesick Blues" (Gary P. Nunn).^[5] He also interpreted the songs of others such asRodney Crowell,Townes Van Zandt,Paul Siebel,Bob Dylan,Todd Snider, Dave Roberts, and even arodeo clown namedBilly Jim Baker. Walker was given the moniker of "theJimmy Buffett ofTexas".^[24][25][26] It was Walker who first drove Jimmy Buffett toKey West (from Coconut Grove, Florida in aPackard).^[27] The two musicians also co-wrote the song "Railroad Lady" while riding the last run of thePanama Limited.^[27][28]

Walker's "Mr. Bojangles" (1968) is perhaps his best-known and most-often performed song.^[3] 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 albumDemon in Disguise, a single by theNitty Gritty Dirt Band that charted at number 9 on theBillboard Hot 100 in 1971 (also released on their albumUncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy). and its inclusion in medley on the 1974 debut self-titled album byJim Stafford.

Walker had an annual birthday celebration in Austin at theParamount Theatre and atGruene Hall inGruene, Texas.^[3] The party brought some of the biggest names in country music out for a night ofpicking and swapping stories.^[29]

He died from throat cancer on October 23, 2020, at a hospital inAustin, Texas, at the age of 78.^[5][30][31]

Source: AllMusic^[32]

Source: AllMusic,^[39] unless otherwise stated.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toJerry Jeff Walker.

• JerryJeff.com
• Jerry Jeff Walker discography atDiscogs
• Jerry Jeff Walker atIMDb
• Unofficial Jerry Jeff Walker Fan Page
• "Local '50s band almost made it big", Mark Simonson,The Daily Star, Oct 1, 2001
• "Official Documentary Film on Jerry Jeff Walker's Life"

• 1942 births
• 2020 deaths
• 20th-century American guitarists
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• Coral Reefer Band members
• Country musicians from New York (state)
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• Guitarists from New York (state)
• Guitarists from Texas
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• Musicians from New Braunfels, Texas
• New York National Guard personnel
• People from Oneonta, New York
• Outlaw country singers
• Progressive country musicians
• Singer-songwriters from Texas
• Singer-songwriters from New York (state)
• 20th-century American male singers
• 21st-century American male singers

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