Joshua Ray Walker w/ Jade Jackson

On his new album See You Next Time, Texas-bred singer/songwriter Joshua Ray Walker shares an imagined yet

truthful portrait of a brokedown honky-tonk and the misfits who call it home: barflies and wannabe cowboys,

bleary-eyed dreamers and hopelessly lost souls. His third full-length in three years, the album marks the final

installment in a trilogy that originated with Walker’s globally acclaimed 2019 debut Wish You Were Here and its

equally lauded follow-up Glad You Made It (the #5 entry on Rolling Stone’s Best Country and Americana

Albums of 2020 list).

 

A working musician since the age of 13, Walker first began honing his lyrical talents after the death of his

beloved grandfather. “My granddad’s the one who got me into music, and I wrote a song called ‘Fondly’ in

the parking lot of the hospital he was in,” recalls Walker, who was 19 at the time. “Back then I was mostly

playing rock and punk and blues and metal, but I quickly realized that the songs I was writing were country

songs.” Raised on bluegrass, he lists Texas legends like Guy Clark and Billy Joe Shaver among his essential

inspirations, but also notes the undeniable influence of country superstars like Alan Jackson and George Strait

(“All those ’90s country songs were so hook-driven, they really bored into my brain,” he says). With the arrival

of Wish You Were Here (an album that spent 12 consecutive weeks on the Americana radio albums chart),

Walker won lavish praise from outlets like NPR Music and began opening for such artists as Colter Wall and

Charley Crockett, in addition to headlining tours in the U.S. and Europe. Hailed by No Depression as “an

album that outshines expectations for what country music can, and should, sound like,” Glad You Made It

earned the admiration of leading critics like Ann Powers (“a new voice who really impressed me”), with its

singles featured on such coveted playlists as Spotify’s Indigo and Tidal’s Best of Country 2020. Over the years,

Walker has continually captivated crowds with his magnetic live show, a feat that finds him joined by

musicians like bassist Billy Bones and drummer Trey Pendergrass (both of whom played on See You Next

Time). “I’m really proud of the band on this record, and I’m also proud that I didn’t just go out and get hired

guns from Nashville or Austin,” Walker says. “They’re guys I’ve played with for 10 or 15 years, and at this

point we’re all like family.”

True to that communal spirit, See You Next Time closes out on its sing-along-ready title track: a fitting end to

Walker’s trilogy and its tribute to the fleeting, yet possibly life-changing, connection to be found at your

nearest honky-tonk. “There’s not a lot of pretension at a honky-tonk, and there’s much more interaction than

in other bars—you see a lot less people on their phones,” says Walker. “We’re there to talk to other humans,

put a song on the jukebox and dance with a stranger, get to know your bartender and tell them all your

problems. I really wanted to capture that feeling on this record—I want everyone to feel like they know all

these characters, and that they’re somehow better understood because these songs exist.”