Jerry Jeff Walker

小简介
杰瑞杰夫沃克(生于1942年3月16日)是一个乡村音乐歌手。是以奥斯丁、德克萨斯州为中心的一群有着高文化的歌手/歌曲作者的代表人物之一。
by Kurt Wolf & Thom Jurek
Jerry Jeff Walker is strongly associated with the progressive (outlaw) country scene that centered around Austin, Texas, in the 1970s and included such figures as Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, Billy Joe Shaver, the Lost Gonzo Band, Waylon Jennings,and Townes Van Zandt.
Ironically, however, Walker is not a native Texan. He was born Ronald Clyde Crosby in upstate New York and recorded his first several albums while living in New York City. He didnt move to Austin until 1971, but hes remained a major figure in the area ever since. Walker has been quoted as saying, the first time I set foot in Texas, particularly in Austin, I knew I was home.
Walker first recorded with the folk-rock group Circus Maximus for Vanguard in 1967. The band split after its second album, and Walker signed with Atco and released his first solo album, Mr. Bojangles, in 1968. He is, for better or worse, best known as the writer of Mr. Bojangles, an enduring pop classic he wrote at the after meeting a street singer named Bill Bojangles Robinson in a New Orleans drunk tank. His version of Bojangles never hit it big, but the Nitty Gritty Dirt Bands rendition made the Top Ten of the pop charts in 1971.
In 1972 Walker signed with Decca/MCA and released a self-titled album that included his version of Guy Clarks L.A. Freeway, and That Old Time Feeling, along with his own Hill Country Rain, his reputation for being a gypsy songman found its roots in this outing. His best-known album from the period, however, however, is Viva Terlingua, which he recorded in 1973 in the tiny Texas town of Luckenbach with the Lost Gonzo Band. The album went gold, and its his biggest-selling album to date. His subsequent recordings of the 1970s, particularly Its A Good Night For Singing, Ridin High and A Man Must Carry On solidified Walkers reputation for being not only a great songwriter, but a wonderful interpreter of the work of his peers, and for being the greatest example of the living embodiment of cosmic cowboyism.
Walker was a hard partier throughout much of his career (his friends called him Jacky Jack), and this reputation became part of his identity. Hes since cleaned up his act — in part thanks to his wife, Susan, whom he married in 1974 — and hes continued to record steadily into the 1990s. He released a couple albums on Elektra/Asylum in the late 70s, but remained mostly with MCA until his 1982 album Cowboy Jazz — a record that became his last for any major label. The Elektra recordings, Jerry Jeff and Too Old Too Change were undervalued during their heyday, and have been proved to be among his most adventurous and enduring recordings thanks to a Wounded Bird twofer reissue on CD in 2003. Walker as evidenced by these recordings, was the only one of his peers —with the possible exception of Willie Nelson— who unrelentingly sought change and development in his sound. It didnt helpwith a country music industry completely hoodwinked by (sub)urban cowboyism and a pop market less receptive to organic American music than at any time in its history. In 1985, however, he showed the industry he could live without their help and released the first of a series of self-made cassettes, Gypsy Songman, many of which he sold via a mailing list that has grown to more than 40,000 strong. In 1987 Walker worked out a deal with Rykodisc that released his CDs until 1996 when their partnership ended. He has since continued to market his material on True & True through his web site and live shows. While Walkers Tried & True issues have not been as critically regarded as his earlier work, they are compelling, occasionally brilliant, always written from the perspective of where his gypsy songman is at this particular musical moment.
In 1991 and 1992 Walker hosted the weekly TV show, The Texas Connection, on TNN. In 1993 he returned to Luckenbach for an anniversary recording that became the album Viva Luckenbach! Walkers birthday is a major celebration in Austin every March, when he plays several shows in different local clubs and theaters. In 1999 he published an autobiography, Gypsy Songman, accompanied by an LP of the same name. Walkers most recent release, Jerry Jeff Jazz showcases him singing jazz pop and swing standards in front of a small tightly knit combo. While his voice has lost of its pliability in recent years, it nonetheless suits the gorgeous, homey quality of this recording; it is his finest moment on record in over a decade. Apparently this old coyote still has plenty of tricks up his sleeve.