Jerry Jeff Walker

Walker was born Ronald Clyde Crosby in Oneonta, New York, on March 16, 1942. His father, Mel, worked as a sports referee and bartender; his mother, Alma (Conrow), was a housewife. His maternal grandparents played for square dances in the Oneonta area After high school, Crosby joined the National Guard, but his thirst for adventure led him to go AWOL, and he was eventually discharged. He went on to roam the country busking for a living in New Orleans and throughout Texas, Florida, and New York, often accompanied by H. R. Stoneback (a friendship referenced in 1970's Stoney). He first played under the stage name of Jerry Ferris, then Jeff Walker, before amalgamating them into Jerry Jeff Walker and legally changing his name to that in the late 1960s. ==Career==

Walker 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, He settled in Austin, Texas, in the 1970s, associating mainly with the outlaw country scene that included artists such as Michael Martin Murphey, Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, Waylon Jennings, "Jerry Jeff's train songs" (such as "Desperados 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)". On September 28, 1974, Walker appeared with Doug Sahm at the Main Hall of Carnegie Hall. A string of records for MCA and Elektra followed Walker's move to Austin, with his wife Susan as president and manager. Susan also founded Goodknight Music as his management company and Tried & True Artists for his bookings. In 2004, Walker released his first DVD of songs from his past performed in an intimate setting in Austin. Walker married Susan Streit in 1974 in Travis County, Texas. He also made a guest appearance on Ramblin' Jack Elliott's 1998 album of duets Friends of Mine, singing "He Was a Friend of Mine" and Woody Guthrie's "Hard Travelin'". Walker recorded songs written by others such as "L.A. Freeway" (Guy Clark), "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother" (Ray Wylie Hubbard), and "London Homesick Blues" (Gary P. Nunn). Walker was who first drove Jimmy Buffett to Key West (from Coconut Grove, Florida in a Packard). The two musicians also co-wrote the song "Railroad Lady" while riding the last run of the Panama Limited. "Mr. Bojangles" Walker's "Mr. Bojangles" (1968) is perhaps his best-known and most-often performed song. 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 album Demon in Disguise, a single by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band that charted at number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971 (also released on their album Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy), and its inclusion in medley on the 1974 debut self-titled album by Jim Stafford. ==Later years and death==

Walker had an annual birthday celebration in Austin at the Paramount Theatre and at Gruene Hall in Gruene, Texas. He died from throat cancer on October 23, 2020, at a hospital in Austin, Texas, at the age of 78. ==Discography==

Albums Source: AllMusic Singles Source: AllMusic, unless otherwise stated. ==Notes==