Walker, Jerry Jeff (originally, Crosby, (originally, Crosby Ronald Clyde)

Walker, Jerry Jeff (originally, Crosby, (originally, Crosby Ronald Clyde); b. Oneonta, N.Y., March 14, 1942. In a diverse 1960s career, Jerry Jeff Walker started as a folk-style artist, manned a rock band called Circus Maximus, and recorded several neglected solo albums before scoring his most conspicuous success as the author of the classic “Mr. Bojangles,” a near-smash hit for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in late 1970. Moving to Austin, Tex., in 1971, Walker became intimately involved with the area’s burgeoning country- music scene, later labeled the outlaw movement. Although he never attained the success of fellow outlaws Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, Walker regularly recorded the compositions of Tex. songwriters such as Guy Clark and Rodney Crowell.

Jerry Jeff Walker obtained his first guitar at 13 and left home at 16 to drift around the country, eventually playing coffeehouses in the early 1960s. In 1966 he helped form Circus Maximus, which Vanguard Records promoted as a psychedelic group. Their debut album included the underground favorite “Wind” and Walker’s “Fading Lady.” After their second album, Walker left the group and recorded a solo album for Vanguard that was released after the modest success of his classic “Mr. Bojangles” on Ateo in the summer of 1968. Popularized by N.Y/s underground FM radio station WBAI, the song was written about a street dancer whom Walker met in a New Orleans jail. “Mr. Bojangles” ultimately became a hit for the Nitty Gritty Dirt band in 1970 and has since been recorded by dozens of other artists.

With the profits from “Mr. Bojangles,” Jerry Jeff Walker retreated to Austin, Tex., in 1971. Signed to MCA Records and given artistic control over his recordings, Walker recorded his debut for the label largely in Austin, employing musicians who became the Lost Gonzo Band, his touring band until 1977. The album included his own “Hairy Ass Hillbillies” and”David and Me” and Guy Clark’s “That Old Time Feeling” and “L.A. Freeway,” the latter a minor hit. Becoming an integral part of the developing Austin music scene, Walker recorded Viva Teralingualive in 1973 in an abandoned saloon in the near-ghost town of Luckenback (immortalized by Waylon Jennings in 1977). The best-selling album of his career, it contained his own “Gettin’ By” and “Sangria Wine,” plus Ray Wylie Hub-bard’s barroom classic “Up Against the Wall, Red Neck,” Guy Clark’s “Desperados,” and Lost Gonzo Band leader Gary P. Nunn’s “London Homesick Blues,” later used as the theme for the public-television music show Austin City Limits. After Collectibles (with “I Like to Sleep Late in the Morning”) and Riditi’ High (with Willie Nelson’s “Pick Up the Tempo”), Walker recorded the excellent It’s a Good Night for Singin’,which featured Tom Waits’s “(Lookin’ for) The Heart of Saturday Night,” Billy Joe Shaver’s “Old Five and Dimers,” “Couldn’t Do Nothin’ Right” (coauthored by Walker and Nunn), and “Some Day I’ll Get Out of These Bars.”

Beginning in 1975, the Lost Gonzo Band attempted their own recording career, as Jerry Jeff Walker continued to record for MCA until 1978. Featuring Rodney Crowell’s “Song for the Life,” Rusty Wier’s “Don’t It Make You Wanna Dance,” and “Railroad Lady,” cowrit-ten by Walker and Jimmy Buffett, Walker’s A Man Must Carry Onsold quite well. However, subsequent albums sold progressively less well, and by 1978 Walker had switched to Elektra Records, only to return to MCA in 1981.

By the late 1980s Jerry Jeff Walker was touring as a solo act. In 1986 he formed the record label Tried and True Music, with manufacture and distribution handled by Rykodisc. Walker scored three minor country hits in 1989 with “I Feel Like Hank Williams Tonight,” “The Pickup Truck Song,” and “Trashy Women” and enjoyed a revitalization of his career with Live at Gruene Hall. He played the inaugurals of Tex. Governor Ann Richards in 1991 and President Bill Clinton in 1993, and in the early 1990s hosted the music show Texas Connectionon the Nashville cable network (TNN). In 1993 Jerry Jeff Walker recorded the sequel to Viva Teralingua, Viva Luckenback!

Discography

Circus Maximus (1967); Neverland Revisited (1968). JERRY JEFF WALKER: Driftin Way of Life (1969); Mr. Bojangles (1968); Five Years Gone (1969); Bein’ Free (1970); /. /. W.(1973); Viva Teralingua (1973); Walker’s Collectibles (1974); Ridirí High (1975); It’s a Good Night for Singin (1976); A Man Must Carry On (1977); Contrary to Ordinary (1978); Best (1980); Jerry Jeff (1978); Too Old to Change (1979); Reunion (1981); Cowjazz (1982); Great Gonzos (1991); Mr. Bojangles (1982); Gypsy Songman (1988); Live at Gruene Hall (1989); Navajo Rug (1991); Hz7/ Country Rain (1992); Vzua Luckenback! (1993). THE LOST GONZO BAND: The Lost Gonzo Band (1975); Thrills (1976); Sz’gns o/ii/ê (1978); Rendezvous (1992).

—Brock Helander