Biography

Once the best-kept secret of Dallas' music scene, Joshua Ray Walker catapulted himself into the international spotlight with his 2019 debut, Wish You Were Here. An album of character-driven songwriting and golden-era Texas twang, Wish You Were Here didn't just nod to the larger-than-life troubadours who'd inspired Walker's craft — it brought him into their ranks, too, adding Walker's name to the shortlist of songwriters worthy of carrying the torches of Guy Clark, John Prine, and Blaze Foley. What may have looked like overnight success to an outsider was, in reality, the product of a decade-long climb up the industry's ranks. Walker spent years balancing his gigs as a sideman with solo shows, regularly racking up more than 250+ gigs a year. That prolific approach now leads Walker to 2020's Glad You Made It, a sophomore record that both matches and magnifies the vital, vulnerable lure of his debut. Emotionally-charged, soul-baring storytelling and bright, buoyant arrangements make Glad You Made It a modern classic. Like the Texas titans before him, Joshua Ray Walker confidently blurs the lines between the personal and the universal, between fact and fiction, between country music and the sundry sounds that orbit the genre. With Glad You Made It, he lays another brick in the pathway he's been constructing for years, pointing his way toward a destination that's unique and utterly compelling.