Jerry Jeff Walker
Encyclopedia
Jerry Jeff Walker is an American country music
singer and songwriter. He is probably most famous for writing the song "Mr. Bojangles
.
. His maternal grandparents played for square dances in the area, with his grandmother, Jessie Conroe, playing piano, and her husband playing fiddle. During the late-1950s, Crosby was a member of a local Oneonta teen band called The Tones. The band traveled to Philadelphia to audition for Dick Clark's American Bandstand, but were turned down. Members of the band found Dick Clark's house and were able to get a recommendation to audition at New York City
's Baton Records
through the company's lead producer Sol Rabinowitz
. The band was given a recording contract, but the studio wanted a quintet backed by studio musicians, which left Crosby and another member (Jerry Russell) out of their recordings.
After high school, Crosby joined the National Guard, but his thirst for adventure led him to go AWOL and 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 played mostly ukulele until Harriet Ottenheimer, one of the founders of The Quorum
, got him settled on a guitar in 1963. He adopted his stage name "Jerry Jeff Walker" in 1966. He 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, one with the popular west coast hit "Wind", but Bruno's interest in jazz apparently diverged from Walker's interest in folk music. Walker thus resumed his solo career and recorded the seminal album "Mr. Bojangles" with the help of David Bromberg
and other influential Atlantic recording artists. He settled in Austin, Texas, in the 1970s associating mainly with the country outlaw scene that included artists such as Willie Nelson
, Guy Clark
, Waylon Jennings
, and Townes Van Zandt
.
"Mr. Bojangles
" (written by Walker) is perhaps his most well-known and most-often covered song. It was about an obscure alcoholic but talented tap-dancing drifter, (not the famous stage and movie dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson
, as usually assumed, nor was it about New Orleans blues musician Babe Stovall
), a friend of Walker's. In his autobiography 'Gypsy Songman', Walker makes it clear the man he met was white. Further, in an interview with BBC Radio 4 in August 2008, he pointed out that at the time the jail cells in New Orleans were segregated along color lines, so his influence could not have been black. Bojangles is thought to have been a folk character who entertained informally in the south of the US and California, with authentic reports of him existing from the 1920s through about 1965. Artists from Neil Diamond
to Nina Simone
, Bob Dylan
, Philip Glass
, Tom T. Hall
, Jim Stafford
, Sammy Davis Jr., Lulu (New Routes
), Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
and recently Robbie Williams
, have covered the song. Walker has also 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
).
A string of records for MCA
and Elektra
followed Jerry Jeff's move to Austin, Texas
, before he gave up on the mainstream music business and formed his own independent record label. Tried & True Music was founded in 1986, with his wife Susan as President and manager. Susan also founded Goodknight Music as his management company and Tried & True Artists for his bookings. A series of increasingly autobiographical records followed under the Tried & True imprint. Tried & True also sells his autobiography called "Gypsy Songman". In 2004, Jerry Jeff released his first DVD of songs from his past as performed in an intimate setting in Austin.
He has interpreted the songs of others like Rodney Crowell
, Guy Clark
, Townes Van Zandt
, Keith Sykes, Paul Siebel
, Bob Dylan
, Todd Snider
and even a rodeo clown
named Billy Jim Baker
. Some have called Jerry Jeff the Jimmy Buffett
of Texas
. Oddly enough, it was Jerry Jeff who first drove Jimmy Buffett to Key West
(from Coconut Grove, Florida in a Packard
). Walker and Buffett also co-wrote the song "Railroad Lady" while riding the last run of the Panama Limited.
Jerry married the former Susan Streit in 1974 in Travis County, Texas. They have two children: a son, Django Walker
, who is also a musician and a daughter, Jessie Jane. In addition to his residence in Austin, Walker has a retreat on Ambergris Caye in Belize where he recorded his "Cowboy Boots and Bathing Suits" album in 1998.
Walker has developed a style of music he calls "Cowjazz". The poignant “Eastern Avenue River Railway Blues,” is one of the best examples of this music. The song sounds like a cross between Bob Dylan and Harry Chapin, with lyrics that refer to the industrial area between Cincinnati's Eastern Avenue and the Ohio River, just south of the tony Mount Adams area.
Members of his band have varied over the years. The Lost Gonzo Band
and the Gonzo Compadres have backed him in the past. Key members of his band have included John Inmon, Freddie Krc, Gary P. Nunn
, Bob Livingston
, Michael Clarke
, Bobby Ray Rambo, Mitch Watkins, Steve Samuel, David Bromberg
, Chris Gage (of Albert and Gage, Austin, TX), Brad Fordham and others. He is presumably the "Jerry Jeff" in the song Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)
when Willie Nelson
sings,"Between Hank Williams pain songs / Jerry Jeff's train songs."
Jerry Jeff has an annual birthday celebration bash in Austin, Texas at the Paramount Theatre
and at Gruene Hall
in Gruene, Texas
. This party has become an enormous event in Texas and brings some of the biggest names in country music out for a night of picking and swapping stories under the Austin skyline. Jimmy Buffett attended the 2004 Birthday bash. His son Django also often accompanies him at these parties.
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
singer and songwriter. He is probably most famous for writing the song "Mr. Bojangles
Mr. Bojangles (song)
Mr. Bojangles is the title of a song originally written and recorded by American country music artist Jerry Jeff Walker for his 1968 album of the same title...
.
Biography
Walker was born Ronald Clyde Crosby in Oneonta, New YorkOneonta, New York
Oneonta is a city in southern Otsego County, New York, USA. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, had a population of 13,901. Its nickname is "City of the Hills." While the word "oneonta" is of undetermined origin, it is popularly believed to mean "place of open rocks" in the Iroquois language...
. His maternal grandparents played for square dances in the area, with his grandmother, Jessie Conroe, playing piano, and her husband playing fiddle. During the late-1950s, Crosby was a member of a local Oneonta teen band called The Tones. The band traveled to Philadelphia to audition for Dick Clark's American Bandstand, but were turned down. Members of the band found Dick Clark's house and were able to get a recommendation to audition at New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's Baton Records
Baton Records
Baton Records was an independent New York City based record label pioneered in the 1950s by record producer Sol Rabinowitz.Baton's first record, and subsequent hit, was "A Thousand Stars" by the R&B group The Rivileers. The label's most enduring hit is arguably "I've Got My Mo-Jo Working" written...
through the company's lead producer Sol Rabinowitz
Sol Rabinowitz
Sol Rabinowitz was the founder and lead producer of Baton Records, an independent record label in New York City during the 1950s.-References:**Baton Records...
. The band was given a recording contract, but the studio wanted a quintet backed by studio musicians, which left Crosby and another member (Jerry Russell) out of their recordings.
After high school, Crosby joined the National Guard, but his thirst for adventure led him to go AWOL and roam the country busking
Busking
Street performance or busking is the practice of performing in public places, for gratuities, which are generally in the form of money and edibles...
for a living in New Orleans and throughout Texas, Florida, and New York, often accompanied by H.R. Stoneback
H.R. Stoneback
Harry Robert Stoneback is an American academic, poet, and folk singer. A Hemingway, Durrell, and Faulkner scholar of international distinction, Stoneback—who, as an itinerant musician in the early 1960s, collaborated with Jerry Jeff Walker and played with Bob Dylan at Gerde's Folk City shortly...
(a friendship referenced in 1970's "Stoney"). He played mostly ukulele until Harriet Ottenheimer, one of the founders of The Quorum
The Quorum
The Quorum coffee house created a successful model for multicultural exchange in the politically and racially charged atmosphere of the 1960s. It became a frequent target of segregationist harassment in New Orleans after it opened to persons from all racial backgrounds in 1963...
, got him settled on a guitar in 1963. He adopted his stage name "Jerry Jeff Walker" in 1966. He spent his early folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
days in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
in the mid-1960s. He co-founded a band with Bob Bruno in the late-1960s called Circus Maximus
Circus Maximus (U.S. band)
Circus Maximus was a United States band in the late 1960s, who combined influences from folk music, rock, and jazz into a form of psychedelic rock.-History:...
that put out two albums, one with the popular west coast hit "Wind", but Bruno's interest in jazz apparently diverged from Walker's interest in folk music. Walker thus resumed his solo career and recorded the seminal album "Mr. Bojangles" with the help of David Bromberg
David Bromberg
David Bromberg is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. Bromberg has an eclectic style, playing bluegrass, blues, folk, jazz, country and western, and rock and roll equally well. He is known for his quirky, humorous lyrics, and the ability to play rhythm and lead guitar at the...
and other influential Atlantic recording artists. He settled in Austin, Texas, in the 1970s associating mainly with the country outlaw scene that included artists such as Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
, Guy Clark
Guy Clark
Guy Clark is an American Texas Country artist. In his career, he has released more than twenty albums, primarily on major labels. He has also written singles for other artists, including Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner and Rodney Crowell....
, Waylon Jennings
Waylon Jennings
Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. Jennings began playing at eight. He began performing at twelve, on KVOW radio. Jennings formed a band The Texas Longhorns. Jennings worked as a D.J on KVOW, KDAV and KLLL...
, and Townes Van Zandt
Townes Van Zandt
John Townes Van Zandt , best known as Townes Van Zandt, was an American Texas Country-folk music singer-songwriter, performer, and poet...
.
"Mr. Bojangles
Mr. Bojangles (song)
Mr. Bojangles is the title of a song originally written and recorded by American country music artist Jerry Jeff Walker for his 1968 album of the same title...
" (written by Walker) is perhaps his most well-known and most-often covered song. It was about an obscure alcoholic but talented tap-dancing drifter, (not the famous stage and movie dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson
Bill Robinson
Bill “Bojangles” Robinson was an American tap dancer and actor of stage and film. Audiences enjoyed his understated style, which eschewed the frenetic manner of the jitterbug in favor of cool and reserve; rarely did he use his upper body, relying instead on busy, inventive feet, and an expressive...
, as usually assumed, nor was it about New Orleans blues musician Babe Stovall
Babe Stovall
Jewell Stovall, better known as Babe Stovall was an American Delta blues singer and guitarist....
), a friend of Walker's. In his autobiography 'Gypsy Songman', Walker makes it clear the man he met was white. Further, in an interview with BBC Radio 4 in August 2008, he pointed out that at the time the jail cells in New Orleans were segregated along color lines, so his influence could not have been black. Bojangles is thought to have been a folk character who entertained informally in the south of the US and California, with authentic reports of him existing from the 1920s through about 1965. Artists from Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
to Nina Simone
Nina Simone
Eunice Kathleen Waymon , better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music...
, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
, Tom T. Hall
Tom T. Hall
Thomas "Tom T." Hall is an American country music singer-songwriter. He has written 11 #1 hit songs, with 26 more that reached the Top 10, including the pop crossover hit "I Love", which reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100...
, Jim Stafford
Jim Stafford
James Wayne "Jim" Stafford is an American comedian, musician, and singer-songwriter, prominent in the 1970s. Stafford is self-taught on guitar, fiddle, piano, banjo, organ and harmonica....
, Sammy Davis Jr., Lulu (New Routes
New Routes
New Routes is an album by Scottish singer Lulu recorded between 10 September and 2 October 1969 at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio - one of that facility's earliest recordings - for a 16 January 1970 release...
), Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is an American country-folk-rock band that has existed in various forms since its founding in Long Beach, California in 1966. The group's membership has had at least a dozen changes over the years, including a period from 1976 to 1981 when the band performed and recorded...
and recently Robbie Williams
Robbie Williams
Robert Peter "Robbie" Williams is an English singer-songwriter, vocal coach and occasional actor. He is a member of the pop group Take That. Williams rose to fame in the band's first run in the early- to mid-1990s. After many disagreements with the management and certain group members, Williams...
, have covered the song. Walker has also recorded songs written by others such as "LA Freeway" (Guy Clark
Guy Clark
Guy Clark is an American Texas Country artist. In his career, he has released more than twenty albums, primarily on major labels. He has also written singles for other artists, including Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner and Rodney Crowell....
), "Up Against the Wall Red Neck Mother" (Ray Wylie Hubbard
Ray Wylie Hubbard
Ray Wylie Hubbard is an American Texas Country singer and songwriter.-Early life:Hubbard grew up in southeastern town of Hugo, Oklahoma. His family moved to Oak Cliff in south Dallas, Texas in 1954. He attended W. H. Adamson High School with Michael Martin Murphey, who had his own band at the time...
), "(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night" (Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
) and London Homesick Blues (Gary P. Nunn
Gary P. Nunn
Gary P. Nunn is a Texas Country singer/songwriter. Nunn was born in Oklahoma and moved to Brownfield, Texas as a sixth grader. He was a member of Lubbock, Texas rock band The Sparkles during the 1960s. In 1995, Nunn was inducted into the West Texas Walk of Fame, and in 2004, into the Texas Hall of...
).
A string of records for MCA
Music Corporation of America
MCA, Inc. was an American talent agency. Initially starting in the music business, they would next become a dominant force in the film business, and later expanded into the television business...
and Elektra
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....
followed Jerry Jeff's move to Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, before he gave up on the mainstream music business and formed his own independent record label. Tried & True Music was founded in 1986, with his wife Susan as President and manager. Susan also founded Goodknight Music as his management company and Tried & True Artists for his bookings. A series of increasingly autobiographical records followed under the Tried & True imprint. Tried & True also sells his autobiography called "Gypsy Songman". In 2004, Jerry Jeff released his first DVD of songs from his past as performed in an intimate setting in Austin.
He has interpreted the songs of others like Rodney Crowell
Rodney Crowell
Rodney Crowell is a Grammy Award-winning musician, known primarily for his work as a singer and songwriter in country music....
, Guy Clark
Guy Clark
Guy Clark is an American Texas Country artist. In his career, he has released more than twenty albums, primarily on major labels. He has also written singles for other artists, including Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner and Rodney Crowell....
, Townes Van Zandt
Townes Van Zandt
John Townes Van Zandt , best known as Townes Van Zandt, was an American Texas Country-folk music singer-songwriter, performer, and poet...
, Keith Sykes, Paul Siebel
Paul Siebel
Paul Siebel is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, born on September 19, 1937 in Buffalo, NY. He is best known for other artist's cover versions of his songs, most notably "Louise"...
, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Todd Snider
Todd Snider
Todd Daniel Snider is an American singer-songwriter with a musical style that combines Americana, alt-country, and folk.-Biography:...
and even a rodeo clown
Rodeo clown
A rodeo clown, also known as a bullfighter or rodeo protection athlete, is a rodeo performer who works in bull riding competitions. The primary job of the rodeo clown is to protect a fallen rider from the bull, whether the rider has been bucked off or has jumped off of the animal...
named Billy Jim Baker
Billy Jim Baker
Billy Jim Baker is a professional clown and songwriter. A member of the International Clown Hall of Fame, he wrote two songs that were recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker, "Too Old to Change" and "Contrary to Ordinary"...
. Some have called Jerry Jeff the Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffett
James William "Jimmy" Buffett is a singer-songwriter, author, entrepreneur, and film producer. He is best known for his music, which often portrays an "island escapism" lifestyle. Together with his Coral Reefer Band, Buffett's musical hits include "Margaritaville" , and "Come Monday"...
of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. Oddly enough, it was Jerry Jeff who first drove Jimmy Buffett to Key West
Key West
Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about from Cuba....
(from Coconut Grove, Florida in a Packard
Packard
Packard was an American luxury-type automobile marque built by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, and later by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana...
). Walker and Buffett also co-wrote the song "Railroad Lady" while riding the last run of the Panama Limited.
Jerry married the former Susan Streit in 1974 in Travis County, Texas. They have two children: a son, Django Walker
Django Walker
Django Walker is a Texas Country singer-songwriter and the frontman for the Django Walker Band.-Biography:Named after Belgian guitarist Django Reinhardt, Walker is the son of country music artist Jerry Jeff Walker and Susan Walker. He began learning to play guitar at age 15...
, who is also a musician and a daughter, Jessie Jane. In addition to his residence in Austin, Walker has a retreat on Ambergris Caye in Belize where he recorded his "Cowboy Boots and Bathing Suits" album in 1998.
Walker has developed a style of music he calls "Cowjazz". The poignant “Eastern Avenue River Railway Blues,” is one of the best examples of this music. The song sounds like a cross between Bob Dylan and Harry Chapin, with lyrics that refer to the industrial area between Cincinnati's Eastern Avenue and the Ohio River, just south of the tony Mount Adams area.
Members of his band have varied over the years. The Lost Gonzo Band
Lost Gonzo Band
The Lost Gonzo Band was founded in 1973 and toured and recorded with many of Texas' most colorful musicians including Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Martin Murphey, and Ray Wylie Hubbard. The original members of the band were, Bob Livingston, Gary P. Nunn, John Inmon, Kelly Dunn, Tomas Ramirez and...
and the Gonzo Compadres have backed him in the past. Key members of his band have included John Inmon, Freddie Krc, Gary P. Nunn
Gary P. Nunn
Gary P. Nunn is a Texas Country singer/songwriter. Nunn was born in Oklahoma and moved to Brownfield, Texas as a sixth grader. He was a member of Lubbock, Texas rock band The Sparkles during the 1960s. In 1995, Nunn was inducted into the West Texas Walk of Fame, and in 2004, into the Texas Hall of...
, Bob Livingston
Bob Livingston (musician)
Bob Livingston is a musician from Texas. He is a singer-songwriter, bass player, and a founding member of The Lost Gonzo Band. Livingston was a key figure instigating the cosmic cowboy, progressive country and outlaw country music movements that distinguished the Austin, TX music scene in the 1970s...
, Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke (musician)
Michael Clarke , was an American musician, best known as the drummer for the 1960s rock group The Byrds from 1964 to 1967. He died in 1993, at age 47, from liver failure, a direct result of more than three decades of heavy alcohol consumption.-Biography:Clarke was born Michael James Dick in...
, Bobby Ray Rambo, Mitch Watkins, Steve Samuel, David Bromberg
David Bromberg
David Bromberg is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. Bromberg has an eclectic style, playing bluegrass, blues, folk, jazz, country and western, and rock and roll equally well. He is known for his quirky, humorous lyrics, and the ability to play rhythm and lead guitar at the...
, Chris Gage (of Albert and Gage, Austin, TX), Brad Fordham and others. He is presumably the "Jerry Jeff" in the song Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)
Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)
"Luckenbach, Texas " is a popular song sung by Waylon Jennings released in April 1977, at the height of outlaw country on the hit album Ol' Waylon...
when Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
sings,"Between Hank Williams pain songs / Jerry Jeff's train songs."
Jerry Jeff has an annual birthday celebration bash in Austin, Texas at the Paramount Theatre
The Paramount Theatre (Austin, Texas)
The Paramount Theatre is a live theatre venue/movie theatre located in downtown Austin, Texas in the United States of America. The classical revival style structure was built in 1915...
and at Gruene Hall
Gruene Hall
Gruene Hall, was built in 1878 by Richard Gruene and is located in the historical town of Gruene, Texas , and bills itself as "the oldest continually run dance hall in Texas." Gruene Hall has hosted such acts as Willie Nelson, George Strait, Townes Van Zandt, Jerry Jeff Walker, Lyle Lovett, Hal...
in Gruene, Texas
Gruene, Texas
Gruene is a former town in Comal County, Texas. Once a significant cotton-producing community along the Guadalupe River, the economy is now supported primarily by tourism...
. This party has become an enormous event in Texas and brings some of the biggest names in country music out for a night of picking and swapping stories under the Austin skyline. Jimmy Buffett attended the 2004 Birthday bash. His son Django also often accompanies him at these parties.
Albums
| Year | Album | Chart Positions | Label | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Country | US Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
CAN Country | |||
| 1967 | Circus Maximus | Vanguard | |||
| 1968 | Neverland Revisited | ||||
| Mr. Bojangles | Atco | ||||
| 1969 | Driftin' Way of Life | Vanguard | |||
| 1970 | Five Years Gone | Atco | |||
| 1970 | Bein' Free | ||||
| 1972 | Jerry Jeff Walker | 208 | MCA | ||
| 1973 | Viva Terlingua Viva Terlingua ¡Viva Terlingua! is a live progressive country album by Jerry Jeff Walker and The Lost Gonzo Band recorded August 18, 1973 at the legendary Luckenbach Dancehall in Luckenbach, Texas and released later that year on MCA Nashville Records... |
160 | |||
| 1974 | Walker's Collectibles | 141 | |||
| 1975 | Ridin' High | 14 | 119 | ||
| 1976 | It's a Good Night for Singing | 18 | 84 | ||
| 1977 | A Man Must Carry On | 13 | 60 | ||
| 1978 | Contrary to OrdinaryA | 25 | 111 | 3 | |
| 1978 | Jerry Jeff | 43 | 206 | Elektra/Asylum | |
| 1979 | Too Old to Change | ||||
| 1980 | The Best of JJW | 57 | 185 | 21 | MCA |
| 1981 | Reunion | 188 | |||
| 1982 | Cowjazz | ||||
| 1987 | Gypsy Songman | T&TM/Ryko | |||
| 1989 | Live at Gruene Hall | ||||
| 1991 | Navajo Rug | 59 | |||
| Great Gonzos | MCA | ||||
| 1992 | Hill Country Rain | T&TM/Ryko | |||
| 1994 | Viva Luckenbach | ||||
| Christmas Gonzo Style | |||||
| 1995 | Night After Night | T&TM | |||
| 1996 | Scamp | ||||
| 1998 | Cowboy Boots & Bathing Suits | ||||
| Lone Wolf: Elektra Sessions | Warner Bros. | ||||
| 1999 | Best of the Vanguard Years | Vanguard | |||
| Gypsy Songman: A Life in Song | T&TM | ||||
| 2001 | Gonzo Stew | ||||
| Jerry Jeff Walker: Ultimate Collection | Hip-O Records | ||||
| 2003 | Jerry Jeff Jazz | T&TM | |||
| 2004 | The One and Only | ||||
| 2009 | Moon Child |
- AContrary to Ordinary also peaked at #99 on the RPMRPM (magazine)RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,...
Top Albums chart in Canada.
Singles
| Year | Single | Chart Positions | Album | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Country Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales... |
US Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
|||
| 1969 | "Mr. Bojangles Mr. Bojangles (song) Mr. Bojangles is the title of a song originally written and recorded by American country music artist Jerry Jeff Walker for his 1968 album of the same title... "A |
77 | Mr. Bojangles | |
| 1972 | "L.A. Freeway" | 98 | Jerry Jeff Walker | |
| 1973 | "Desperados Waiting for a Train" | Viva Terlingua | ||
| "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother" | ||||
| 1975 | "Jaded Lover" | 54 | Ridin' High | |
| 1976 | "It's a Good Night for Singing" | 88 | It's a Good Night for Singing | |
| "Dear John Letter Lounge" | flip | |||
| 1977 | "Mr. Bojangles" (Live) | 93 | A Man Must Carry On | |
| 1981 | "Got Lucky Last Night" | 82 | Single only | |
| 1989 | "I Feel Like Hank Williams Tonight" | 70 | Live at Gruene Hall | |
| "The Pickup Truck Song" | 62 | |||
| "Trashy Women Trashy Women "Trashy Women" is a song recorded by country music singer Jerry Jeff Walker in 1989 and later by the band Confederate Railroad. It was a #63 single on the U.S... " |
63 |
- A"Mr. Bojangles" also peaked at #51 on the RPMRPM (magazine)RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,...
Top Singles chart in Canada.