Joshua Ray Walker w/ Jade Jackson
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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 themisfits 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 Walkers globally acclaimed 2019 debut Wish You Were Here and its equally lauded follow-up Glad You Made It (the #5 entry on Rolling Stones Best Country and Americana Albums of 2020 list).The whole idea with the trilogy was to use the honky-tonk as a setting where all these different characters could interact with each other, says Walker, who drew immense inspiration from the local dive bars he first started sneaking into and gigging at as a teenager growing up in East Dallas. In my mind, this albums takingplace on the night before the bar closes foreverthe songs are just me taking snapshots of that world, and all the moments that happen in it.Like its predecessors, See You Next Time came to life at Audio Dallas Recording Studio with producer John Pedigo and a first-rate lineup of musicians, including the likes of pedal-steel player Adam Ditch Kurtz and rhythm guitarist Nathan Mongol Wells of Ottoman Turks(the country-punk outfit for which Walker sidelines as lead guitarist). The albums immaculately crafted but timelessly vital sound provides a prime backdrop for Walkers storytelling, an element that endlessly blurs the lines between fable-like fiction and personal revelation. I learned a long time ago that writing from a characters perspective lets me examine things about myself without ever feeling too self-conscious aboutit, he points out. Closely informed by the tremendous loss hes suffered in recent years, See You Next Time emerges as the most powerful work to date from an extraordinarily gifted songwriter, imbued with equal parts weary pragmatism and the kind of unabashedly romantic spirit that defies all cynicism.