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Jerry Jeff Walker
nunn
Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 36,013 ******
Playing at the Municipal Auditorium in Greenville, Texas, next Saturday. We are going!
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Who the heck is Jerry Jeff Walker? Never heard of him.
I saw him a couple of times back in the late 70's. He really puts on a show. Don
Desperadoes Waiting For The Train
Stony
Mr. Bojangles
London Homesick Blues
Up Against The Wall, Redneck Mother
LA Freeway
Walker was born Ronald Clyde Crosby in Oneonta, New York. 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 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 areas like New Orleans, Texas, Florida, and New York. 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-rock 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. It was about an obscure alcoholic but talented tap-dancing drifter, (not the famous stage and movie dancer Bill Robinson, as usually assumed). Bojangles is thought to have been a folk character who entertained informally in the south of the US and California, and some say he might have been one of the most gifted natural dancers ever. Authentic reports of him exist from the 1920s through about 1965. Artists from Nina Simone to Bob Dylan, Philip Glass to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, have covered the song. Walker has also recorded songs written by others such as "LA Freeway" (Guy Clark), and "Up Against the Wall Red Neck Mother" (Ray Wylie Hubbard).
A string of records for MCA and Elektra followed Jerry Jeff'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. 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, TX.
He has interpreted the songs of others like Rodney Crowell, Guy Clark, Keith Sykes, Paul Siebel, Bob Dylan, Todd Snider and even a rodeo clown named Billy Jim Baker.
He has a son, Django Walker, who is also a musician. He has 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.
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, Freddy Krc, Gary P. Nunn, Bob Livingston, Michael Clarke, Bobby Rambo, Mitch Watkins, Steve Samuel, David Bromberg and others.
Trivia
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 New Orleans, Louisiana in a Packard).
Jerry Jeff has an annual birthday celebration bash in Austin, Texas with Mike Jak Balla. 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.
Discography
Year Album/CD Record Label Description
1967 Circus Maximus Vanguard with his band Circus Maximus
1968 Neverland Revisited Vanguard with his band Circus Maximus
1968 Mr. Bojangles Atco #6594, Rhino #R2-71518 Single recorded in Memphis June 7 and issued June 20, 1968 with Bobby Woods, Charlie Freeman, Sandy Rhodes, Tommy McClure, Sammy Creason, and a string orchestra. Re-issued on Rhino December 21, 1993.
1968 Mr. Bojangles Atco #33-259, Rhino #R2-71518 Album recorded July and August 1968 in NYC with David Bromberg, Gary Illingworth, Danny Milhon, Bobby Cranshaw, Jody Stecher, Donny Brooks, Ron Carter, Bill LaVorgna, and Jerry Jemmott. Issued September 25, 1968. Re-issued on Rhino December 21, 1993.
1969 Driftin' Way of Life Vanguard
1970 Five Years Gone Atco
1970 Bein' Free Atco
1972 Jerry Jeff Walker MCA
1973 Viva Terlingua MCA
1974 Walker's Collectibles MCA
1975 Ridin' High MCA
1976 It's A Good Night For Singing MCA
1977 A Man Must Carry On MCA double album
1978 Contrary to Ordinary MCA
1978 Jerry Jeff Elektra/Asylum the red, white and blue album
1979 Too Old to Change Elektra/Asylum
1980 The Best of JJW MCA greatest hits
1981 Reunion MCA
1982 Cowjazz MCA
1987 Gypsy Songman T&TM/Ryko
1989 Live at Gruene Hall T&TM/Ryko live recording
1991 Navajo Rug T&TM/Ryko
1991 Great Gonzos MCA greatest hits
1992 Hill Country Rain T&TM/Ryko
1994 Viva Luckenbach T&TM/Ryko live recording
1994 Christmas Gonzo Style T&TM/Ryko
1995 Night After Night T&TM live recording
1996 Scamp T&TM
1998 Cowboy Boots & Bathing Suits T&TM
1998 Lone Wolf: Elektra Sessions Warner Bros.
1999 Best of the Vanguard Years Vanguard
1999 Gypsy Songman: A Life in Song T&TM
2001 Gonzo Stew T&TM
2001 Jerry Jeff Walker: Ultimate Collection Hip-O Records
2003 Jerry Jeff Jazz T&TM
2004 The One and Only T&TM DVD
I can't believe I am the only Texan on this forum.
London Homesick Blues
1st verse
Well, when you're down on your luck,
and you ain't got a buck,
in London you're a goner.
Even London Bridge has fallen down,
and moved to Arizona,
now I know why.
And I'll substantiate the rumor that the English sense of humor
is drier than than the Texas sand.
You can put up your dukes, and you can bet your boots
that I'm leavin' just as fast as I can.
Chorus
I wanna go home with the arma [Am] dillo
Good country music from Ama rillo and Abi lene
The friendliest people and the prettiest women you've ever [G]
seen.
2nd Verse
Well, it's cold over here, and I swear
I wish they'd turn the heat on.
And where in the world is that English girl
I promised I would meet on the third floor.
And of the whole damn lot, the only friend I've got
is a smoke and a cheap guitar.
My mind keeps roamin', my heart keeps longin'
to be home in a Texas bar.
Chorus
3rd Verse
Well, I decided that I'd get my cowboy hat
and go down to Marble Art Station.
'Cause when a Texan fancies, he'll take his chances.
Chances will be taken, that's for sure.
And them Limey eyes, they were eyein' the prize
that some people call manly footwear.
And they said you're from down South,
and when you open your mouth,
you always seem to put your foot there.
Repeat chorus 'til the cows come home[:D]
First Album of his I ever bought..... I wish I was in Texas
Oh,the memories.
[^][^]
BW
And you should...feller is cool...Played up here in a small club in Columbus in the mid-70's..."LA Freeway"...is one his best...