Discography

Albums

  • Circus Maximus (1967), Vanguard

  • Neverland Revisited (1968), Vanguard

  • Mr. Bojangles, Atco

  • Driftin' Way of Life (1969), Vanguard

  • Five Years Gone (1970), Atco

  • Bein' Free (1970), Atco

  • Jerry Jeff Walker (1972), MCA

  • Viva Terlingua (1973), MCA

  • Walker's Collectibles (1974), MCA

  • Ridin' High (1975), MCA

  • It's a Good Night for Singin' (1976), MCA

  • A Man Must Carry On (1977), MCA

  • Contrary to Ordinary (1978), MCA

  • Jerry Jeff (1978), Elektra/Asylum

  • Too Old to Change (1979), Elektra/Asylum

  • The Best of JJW (1980), MCA

  • Reunion (1981), MCA

  • Cowjazz (1982), MCA

  • Gypsy Songman DoLP (1987), Sawdust Records

  • Gypsy Songman (1987), T&TM/Ryko

  • Live at Gruene Hall (1989), T&TM/Ryko

  • Navajo Rug (1991), T&TM/Ryko

  • Great Gonzos, MCA

  • Hill Country Rain (1992), T&TM/Ryko

  • Viva Luckenbach (1994), T&TM/Ryko

  • Christmas Gonzo Style, T&TM/Ryko

  • Night After Night (1995), T&TM

  • Scamp (1996), T&TM

  • Cowboy Boots & Bathing Suits (1998), T&TM

  • Lone Wolf: Elektra Sessions, Warner Bros.

  • Best of the Vanguard Years (1999), Vanguard

  • Gypsy Songman: A Life in Song, T&TM

  • Gonzo Stew (2001), T&TM

  • Jerry Jeff Walker: Ultimate Collection, Hip-O Records

  • Jerry Jeff Jazz (2003), T&TM

  • The One and Only (2004)

  • Moon Child (2009)

  • It's About Time (2018)

Singles

  • "Mr. Bojangles" (1968), Mr. Bojangles

  • "L.A. Freeway" (1972), Jerry Jeff Walker

  • "Desperados Waiting for a Train" (1973), Viva Terlingua

  • "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother", Viva Terlingua

  • "Jaded Lover" (1975), Ridin' High

  • "It's a Good Night for Singing" (1976), It's a Good Night for Singing

  • "Dear John Letter Lounge", It's a Good Night for Singing

  • "Mr. Bojangles" Live (1977), A Man Must Carry On

  • "Got Lucky Last Night" (1981)

  • "I Feel Like Hank Williams Tonight" (1989), Live at Gruene Hall

  • "The Pickup Truck Song", Live at Gruene Hall

  • "Trashy Women", Live at Gruene Hall

  • "Keep Texas Beautiful" (1994)

Source: AllMusic

Jerry Jeff Walker

March 16, 1942 – October 23, 2020

Jerry Jeff Walker was an American country music and folk singer-songwriter. He was a leading figure in the outlaw country music movement. He was best known for having written the 1968 song "Mr. Bojangles".

Walker was born Ronald Clyde Crosby in Oneonta, New York. 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 – his grandmother, Jessie Conroe, playing piano, while his grandfather played fiddle. During the late 1950s, Crosby was a member of a local Oneonta teen band called The Tones. 

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. 

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.

Walker recorded songs written by others such as "LA Freeway" (Guy Clark), "Up Against the Wall Red Neck Mother" (Ray Wylie Hubbard), "(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night" (Tom Waits), and "London Homesick Blues" (Gary P. Nunn). He also interpreted the songs of others such as Rodney Crowell, Townes Van Zandt, Paul Siebel, Bob Dylan, Todd Snider, Dave Roberts, and even a rodeo clown named Billy Jim Baker. Walker was given the moniker of "the Jimmy Buffett of Texas". It was Walker 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.

Walker's "Mr. Bojangles" (1968) is perhaps his best-known and most-often covered song. It is about an obscure alcoholic but talented tap-dancing drifter who, when arrested and jailed in New Orleans, insisted on being identified only as "Bojangles". 

Notable covers of the song include a live version by his bandmate Bromberg on his album Demon in Disguise and 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).

Walker had an annual birthday celebration in Austin at the Paramount Theatre and at Gruene Hall in Gruene, Texas. This party became an enormous event in Texas and brought some of the biggest names in country music out for a night of picking and swapping stories. 

Walker was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2017. He died of the disease on October 23, 2020, at a hospital in Austin, Texas. He was 78 years old.