069: Joshua Ray Walker
Episode 069 Dallas singer-songwriter Joshua Ray Walker. We talk about growing up in Dallas, the city's impact on his storytelling, and his debut album Wish You Were Here.
Interview Transcript
Note: Transcripts aren’t always accurate since they are computer automated and haven’t been edited for spelling, grammar, etc.
Thomas Mooney 0:07
I'm Thomas Mooney, and this is episode number 69. This week's episode, I'm joined by singer songwriter Joshua Ray Walker. Joshua recently released his debut album, wish you were here. Just a couple of months ago, it's been getting some major praise on the circuit. And I've really thoroughly enjoyed this album as well, as a songwriter, I think like one of the things that really sticks out is that he's really unafraid to tackle hard and difficult subjects. It comes out in a few forums, I'll point out basically, in my opinion, like the two biggest ones. For starters, like a lot of it comes from a place of vulnerability. I'll let him tell you tell you the story, because he talks about how he wrote the song Canyon and why. But that's really from a place of this on upon unapologetic vulnerability. It's a very intimate song, but you know, about a very specific point in his life, and you can hear the voice or the fear in his voice, you can hear the fear in these in these lines. And there's a lot of high tension and stress in that song and a few other songs on the record like that. And the other I guess, like him being an unafraid songwriter is it's a lot less serious than these like where the high tension moments of real life but it still comes with a heavy dose of honesty and that's in the songs like working girl a lot lizard and last call. There is a lot of humor in the songs but it's also like, he, he goes into them with the same I guess, like, attention to detail of telling the story is as truthful as possible, as close to to what what what it would be like in real life and not necessarily like glossing over in this kind of rd way or anything like that. Anyway, we we talk a lot about the album, on this episode and the Dallas music scene in general. As always, you know, tell your friends and co workers and whoever to listen to the podcast if they like conversations about music, and give the podcast a five star review on iTunes. Follow me on Twitter and whatever else you want at underscore new slank Yeah, so anyways, here is the conversation I had with Joshua Ray Walker.
It's always strange because like some guys are super loud, and you're like, Oh, God, I gotta turn you down away. We're done. Paul coffin. Yeah. Yeah, I've known Paul for for a good minute. Back in his son's father's days and yeah, that's a band like that. I honestly like I thought they were gonna change country music I thought like, yeah, those two records and then like that, I guess. They they ended up putting up that just a compilation of all the other stuff they had recorded later. But I thought burnin days was was good stuff.
Joshua Ray Walker 3:37
Yeah. I got to see them live once in Austin. I don't remember when that was 13 maybe? Yeah. Something like that.
Thomas Mooney 3:48
Yeah, it's such It's so strange, because we're not strange, but we kind of sucked was they were playing. They were gonna play a Wednesday here. It was like a Wednesday or Thursday. And like the day before, they announced that they were breaking up and that my first thought was like, What are you guys gonna play that last show? Or did they? Yeah, it was it was it was definitely a bummer, though. Yeah. sound like they were Yeah, they were a great band. For sure. So you grew up in like in East Texas, right?
Joshua Ray Walker 4:21
I grew up in East Dallas. So I just make that distinction. Because I don't know. I guess I feel like I have a pride in that neighborhood. I grew up there. It's distinctly different than the rest of Dallas. It's a melting pot, all sorts of sorts of different cultures, their lower income, lots of interesting food and weird retail places. You know, Kingston your addresses that sort of stuff. Eat right. So I just make that distinction, because also a lot of people claim Dallas and then you're like, Oh, well partner like, farmers branch or whatever. It's like, well, that's
Thomas Mooney 4:58
where I'm from. Like, what West Texas so ever, like if you just you're like, I'm from Fort Stockton, you're only from Fort, you know what I mean? Like, there's nothing else right there. And but I think for most people in the state, we just, we always just call it DFW. And you have to realize, like, there's all these right pockets of?
Joshua Ray Walker 5:16
Well, yeah, you know, I think that Metroplex is close to either 20 million or 30 million or something now, and that, I mean, that's a lot of landmass to cover, too. But Fort Worth on its own is one of the largest cities in Texas. And then Dallas, is the 30 to 40 minute drive, right? And then all the cities in between, which we just call the mid cities, that's got just as many people as the two cities do. So it's really there's an insane amount of people in that small.
Thomas Mooney 5:49
Yeah, space. Obviously, like in in a city like that. You've seen a whole lot of development and a lot of like, these areas that are that are, you know, these, especially like in in in DFW, and in an Austin, you see, like, a lot of gentrification happening. Sure. Have you seen a whole lot of that, like you said, you
Joshua Ray Walker 6:06
Oh, yeah, he's Texas, or my neighborhood, and that I grew up in was called castle, Linda. And I moved back there, four or five years ago, now. It's a totally different neighborhood. Growing up, you know, like, it's kind of understood, that's a certain hour, you shouldn't be out, you know, in the front yard, or at the very least, you got to be on Well, you know, we're on the watch. And that's kind of the case in any big city, you know, you have your your pockets of crime and whatever. But now, yeah, it's all dog dog groomers and fancy cupcakes. And, you know, all the things that come with gentrification. Really, more than that, like, I grew up on the lower Greenville area, and that street is totally different. I mean, it's all fancy wine bars and cocktail bars and nice restaurants. And when I was growing up, it was all like social, Social Security, check drinkers and bond shops. And you know, is the drag it was it was a bunch of liquor stores
Thomas Mooney 7:18
and yeah, shops, and
Joshua Ray Walker 7:19
yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's strangers to Trader Joe's now. It's, uh, it's different. I've seen the city change a lot. But that stuff's all cyclical. Like, there have been I've also seen nice neighborhoods. Yeah, that aren't nice now, you know, just kind of it just moves around.
Thomas Mooney 7:36
Yeah. It's such a, I think like we always we talked about, you know, development, being great for everybody. But there's obviously, you can push people out. And you can, yeah, it changes places. Obviously, it can change where you thought you're from, you know,
Joshua Ray Walker 7:52
I mean, my favorite record store in Dallas has good records. And they are actually moving off of lower Greenville right now. I'm guessing because they got priced out. That's the only reason I can think of they've been in the building almost 20 years. And yeah, they're getting, they're getting moved over to my neighborhood. Actually, they're moving like less than a mile from my house. Because that's where all the cool places that you know, we're on lower Greenville, we're having to move 10 minutes farther east, you know, which is great for me, but I like to see the history kind of stay where it is. So it's a little sad. But you know, Steve Earle is going to be playing the, the first like in store there on March 11 in their new location. That's cool. I'm gonna go to that. And that'll be that'll be fun.
Thomas Mooney 8:39
Yeah. You ever seen Steve play? I haven't seen a song one time at I guess like, it was a Southwest show probably five or six years ago. And his acoustic it was right whenever that low country record came out. Yeah. I think like that guy's just.
Joshua Ray Walker 8:57
I would love to tell her. I hope I get to meet him. Yeah, I'm sure next week. I mean, yeah.
Thomas Mooney 9:02
He's, uh, I guess he has that new record of, of guy covers coming out. Really? Yeah. I didn't know that. Yeah. He had that he had a record of the town's covers. couple years back. Now I get he's doing a one of just out all guy Clark song. So we'll see how that goes. Yeah, man. So speaking of records, I mean, you got a record out?
Joshua Ray Walker 9:25
Yes, you're here. Wish you're here just came out about a month ago? Well, six weeks ago now. Yeah, I've been doing this for a long time. And that was a debut record. I feel so good to have it out and to have it on vinyl to hold it in my hands. You know, I got to have a an in store and a record release. Show at good records that place It's moving. And I've been wanting to play there for years. I've seen so many good acts play there. So I'm really happy that I got to play in the old location. I grew up going Too before it moved. And yeah, man, it's been going. It's exceeded all my expectations. It's been in the top 40 of the Americana charts for six weeks now. Let's get in some good Texas country play. And yeah, it's just, I mean, yeah, I wasn't expecting this reaction from
Thomas Mooney 10:21
Apple. When you when they, when Kenyan came out, I felt like that was like I guess I I found it through Spotify just on like, you know, discover weekly or whatever and stuff. And usually every Friday, I'll just start from the top and kind of go down and it popped up. And I was just like, Wait, who is this guy? Because like, I don't know, it just it sounded so new, but like, familiar, you know, and I felt like, like the idea of like the the, you know, the imagery used there with a canyon it. I love whenever something like that is so plain spoken. Like everyone gets it automatically. You think like, how is this not already? How we don't have this song already. And it's, you know, it's new, though. Thanks, man. I guess like what when, I guess like the process of writing that song, like when did that?
Joshua Ray Walker 11:16
That was that song was me kind of like processing all these thoughts and emotions I was having when my dad got diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. You know, he was in good health. And then all of a sudden, one day, he just got sick at work and had a lot of tests done. And the, you know, the result was bad. Luckily, he's still with us, you know, still fighting. And so I was just kind of trying to process like, knowing that, like, him dying is inevitable, you know, which, that's the case for everyone, we're all going to die, but knowing that his life is going to be quite a bit shorter than we had all anticipated, right. And kind of just like, what I wanted my relationship to be with him what he was going to leave behind kind of like legacy that made me think about what I might leave behind when I go like, and if I were to go right now, would I be happy with what I've done all that sort of stuff. And then just all the, you know, all the things that come along with a father son relationship, it's complicated relationship. So that song was me just kind of processing through all those thoughts and feelings. And I only have a couple songs that I sat down, and they just all came out at once. And that's one of those songs like I sat down and the whole thing was probably done in like, you know, 10 minutes or something. Yeah. And a lot of people say there should be like, a third verse or something. And I just felt like, I didn't want to mess with it. it so clearly said everything that I was feeling that I was just like, Nope, I know, I could make edits and probably fix things and add a verse or bridge or whatever, but I decided to just leave it. So yeah, yeah.
Thomas Mooney 13:12
I mean, and something else about that, though, is also often when you have like a, for lack of a better term, like a tribute song to somebody. You know, usually those songs come out before or mean, not before, but after they've already passed. Right. And,
Joshua Ray Walker 13:28
I mean, it's it's pretty great that, you know, he's been able to hear it, he's able to for sure. And the first time I actually sang it in front of them was pretty emotional. I didn't think about it. It just happened. Like he was at a show and I was it was on the setlist. I was like, Oh my god, he hasn't heard this. He doesn't know I wrote a song about this. Like, you know, I like yeah, right before I played it, I kind of I freaked out. Because, you know, that's a heavy song drop on somebody you love. So I mean, but he loved it. Like he got emotional. That made me emotional. I could see it he's in the back of the crowd. And you know, it was it was a really good moment. It was a I think that was that my first single release at a single release party when the album went into pre order back in like September, at my one of my favorite bars in Dallas called the double wide. And yeah, that was a good night.
Thomas Mooney 14:21
Yeah, one of the things that I feel like you you do a great job on is this. It's like a just a very raw a very low I guess honesty, where if you're if you're singing from like a like a song like Canyon, it's it's an outpouring of emotion, but also like if you see like on a song like working girl. It's a very raw I guess, like very non judgmental, like, I think a lot of people would take a song like that and and really You know, for lack of a way of rake, rake that kind of person across the coals, you know what I mean? But like this is like that. And like last call, I mean, I think those songs are kind of raw and a very non judgmental, just kind of telling the way a story goes without being. I don't know, you get what I'm saying?
Joshua Ray Walker 15:23
Yeah. Yeah, man. I mean, those are my people. So I've always, I've kind of always surrounded myself with those type of characters, and not prostitutes, necessarily, but right, you know what I mean? And I don't know, I just, I get it. We've all been there. I've never met a person with advice that I can't relate to. And I don't know, that's what the songs are about just exploring, like all the best and worst parts of people. And I feel like you can find a little bit of yourself in those in the characters in the songs. And because we're all there, at some point, no matter what you're singing about, we all have our rock bottom at some point. So, you know, no use in shaming anyone, I guess.
Thomas Mooney 16:11
Right? And also, there's like a little bit of a sense of humor to it. There's like some, there's a
Joshua Ray Walker 16:18
sure you got to poke fun at the darkness or, you know, it can be too dark. Right? So that's, that's really what kind of drew me into country music. Like, I grew up listening to 90s country with my parents. And, you know, outlaw country is everywhere in Texas, so you hear it. But I never paid very close attention to the lyrics. And I guess I thought that was an older generations music when I was a kid. And I started playing young. I was playing in bands were like, 12 so I was trying to play rock music. You know, I was angsty, and I was angry, and I wanted to play hard music. And then I don't know, I got a little older. And I realized it's just a lot of energy. To not just to play it, but just to feel that way all the time. Right. And my personality like I if something's going wrong, I can I'm quick to kind of poke fun at the situation. And eventually, I came around to the idea that that's what country music's doing. Like they're in on the joke. Like all these sappy songs and all my dog died and you know, all those things people make fun of. When you really listen to the lyrics you realize. Yeah, sometimes those are the jokes in the song, but this the writer is in on the job, they realize what they're doing. And so that kind of like that lightheartedness is kind of what drew me in to writing country?
Thomas Mooney 17:45
Yeah, it's, it kind of reminds me of someplace Foley stuff. Like, where there's like one of my favorite writers. Yeah, we're like, obviously, you have a song like clay pigeons. That is super sad. And super. It's a highly emotional state, or, and he has some songs that are, you know, but even in clay pigeons, like you have these, like, these lines that you kind of, yeah, they're funny. Can't help but laugh and yes, it's so totally. It's such a, you know, it's such a it is that hole where sometimes you have to
Joshua Ray Walker 18:20
stop crying. Yeah, totally. And he was great at that. And that's kind of what I tried to do. Because those are the songs that a lot of people listen to my music and they think it's too sad. You know, they're like, why don't you write a happy song, you know, that kind of thing. Like, these are the type of songs that make me feel happy when I'm sad, you know, something to relate to, that pokes fun at the situation and can kind of bring you out of it. If I listen to a happy song, when I'm sad, I'm just gonna get mad. You know, like, it's gonna piss me off. So yeah, man, I I appreciate the compliment blase. blase is a nice, great, yeah, one of my favorites.
Thomas Mooney 19:01
You mentioned like the whole you know, just when you're young, playing rock music and getting the angst out, right and right, it is such a thing of a lot of these alt country guys for lack of a better term. I know like people don't like all country Americana as a, capturing a scene, but like, you know, well, a lot of these guys have, they do start out in punk bands and like rock and roll bands. And then they realize, like, Oh, you know, it's not like this all the time. I'm probably a little bit more mellow of a person. Right? Maybe it's easier on the voice to I don't know.
Joshua Ray Walker 19:34
Yeah. Well, then you mentioned the whole country Americana thing. Like I get, I get labeled that a lot. Not all country as much as Americana. And, I mean, I don't have any problem with it. Like if more if people want to listen to my music, and call whatever they want to call it, right. You know, American is a really hard thing to define. And there are a lot of great Artists in that genre that I'd love to be compared to. So if people want to call me old country or Americana or whatever, like, that's fine. I didn't, you know, set out to be a country artist, right. I just started writing songs and they happen to sound kind of country sometimes. Yeah. So, you know,
Thomas Mooney 20:22
yeah. Another another band kind of there from the DFW area that kind of has that same. Going with a little bit of a little bit more angsty bandoliers. Yeah. Friends of mine. Yeah. I guess they're going to be playing here in a couple of months. Like in April, I
Joshua Ray Walker 20:40
think this is my second time playing here. Hmm. And do you always broadcast out of the blue light?
Thomas Mooney 20:46
I tried to Yeah,
Joshua Ray Walker 20:48
yeah. Well, that's really cool. And it's awesome to be back. You know, I've been you hear about this place all the time. in Dallas. It's one of the stops you have to make when you go west. And right. I got to play here last year. I think it was about a year ago, I think was in March as an opener for the bandoliers. Okay. They brought me out and, you know, let me stay in their hotel room and showed me what love is all about took me to the place on the corner and got some burritos, right, had some burn shots and did the whole thing. So I'm happy to be back.
Thomas Mooney 21:24
What do you think of burn headlining?
Joshua Ray Walker 21:27
They're good. I prefer whiskey. But you know, they're fun. It's one of those things once you start drinking them, it's pretty easy to keep drinking them.
Thomas Mooney 21:38
We'll see. That's the thing for me like since since obviously, it's originated here, the the burn shot here. I think it's a lot easier. It's okay. It's it's harder to go other places. Whenever there's like not a burn shot, because those are like super easy to drink, right? I mean, if you're it, it's one of those things where if you go to another bar, it's like, oh, your arms are a lot more limited to like whiskey. And
Joshua Ray Walker 22:07
to me it feels like a kind of like a college town thing. Yeah. Because any college town you go to you go into a bar, and they always have like their signature drink, right. And that's the shot that you can get everybody to do, because they'll try it because it's the signature drink. So I feel like it's a really good way to get people to have a good time one and make some money. Right. And, you know, just get everybody drinking, having a good time. A blue light just opened up in Dallas. Right. And have you been there yet? I have Yeah, I sat in on Vinson near lamberson set about a month ago. And I'm trying to get on a on a date there. I just haven't had one workout yet. I'm about to go out of state for a while playing on the road. So we just got to find a time to do it. But I'm excited to play there. But yeah, they have burned shots. So it's nice to have somewhere to go. drop in and get a get a shot when you're in deep ellum.
Thomas Mooney 23:02
Yeah, let's see. In my opinion, it's so much. At the end of the night, the next morning, you're not waking up and you it's not one of those things where you're like, Oh, God, I had like five tequila shots last night. And I don't know, man. I don't like tequila first.
Joshua Ray Walker 23:17
I don't either. But those burn shots, we'll get you between the heat. And I mean, it's got to ever clear and it doesn't it? Isn't that what the ice is or something?
Thomas Mooney 23:27
I know it's vodka. Or maybe
Joshua Ray Walker 23:28
it's whatever it is. tore me up last time I was it might have been cuz I had too many. But yeah, I did not feel good on the drive back to Dallas. But I'm sure I'll end up doing a couple tonight.
Thomas Mooney 23:41
Yeah, yeah. Let's go to this record going back to the record. JOHN pedigo. He's the one who pretty straight. Yeah, man. Like what I guess like getting into that, like, how did you? How did he come in on this project. And
Joshua Ray Walker 23:57
I've been watching john pedigo play in bands since the like early mid 2000s. I would sneak into shows like in junior high and go see rockabilly shows. He was in a band called slick 57. And then he started playing in a band called boy's name Su. And then he started the O's with Taylor young. And so he's just kind of always been a fixture in the Dallas scene since I've been coming up in it and drawing the shows and stuff. So I would always see him around, but never introduce myself because I don't know when you're in a scene like that. You feel like those people are like celebrities, you know, the people that you see on Granada posters, and, you know, every time you go pee, you're looking at their face because they're on a flyer or whatever. And so I just never introduced myself and then I played league guitar in a band called Ottoman Turks. from Dallas. We're still doing it. Played the Granada theater in Dallas a couple times this year and you know, we're getting out on the road a little bit. So We'll be doing that between my tour stuff. But anyway, we're playing a show in Bryan, Texas, next College Station a&m. And we were opening for the O's. And I just turned 21. And I was the only 21 year old in the band. And the rest of the guys went back to the house and I stayed for a minute and had some drinks with john and Taylor. They're real nice. We had a good time. And then every time I'd run into him after that, you know, we'd have a conversation and just kind of drinking buddies type thing, I guess, right? Ottoman Turks in those places, more shows together. And, you know, we formed a friendship and then I, it came time to record an EP. And john said, Hey, give me a deal. If I wanted to record like five songs. Solo just gonna do an acoustic EP. And so we started working on it, and we got almost done with it. And he's like, man, why aren't you making a full album? Right until Why don't have enough money to make full album. And he was like, what would you put on it? You know, if you were to add more songs, so I played him a couple songs and I just written Canyon. And he took those songs we were working on, and I think a demo of some of the other ones to state fair records in Dallas, who he'd been working with and he just released or he was working on releasing an album at the time for pelagos magic Pilsner. Right? And, you know, Trey and Scott at State Fair, like the songs a lot and a couple weeks later, we talked about making a record. And then about two months later, I was in the studio, making it so it just kind of all just fell in place naturally.
Thomas Mooney 26:39
Yeah. I kind of knew john from him playing up here with the O's they'd played. I don't know, you know, a couple times a year for the last few years. And I guess like they first time I saw and they open up for the old 90 sevens here. Yeah, then like the last time it was 97 he was here. He played I guess there was a couple songs where they had a couple auxilary players and he was playing with them.
Joshua Ray Walker 27:06
That makes him in red have known each other for a long time. And yeah, he engineered and produced the Christmas album that the old 90 sevens put out in December. So they've had I think a pretty long relationship.
Thomas Mooney 27:20
Yeah. Yeah, I think those him and Taylor were awesome. I mean, like, they they're talented. They I mean, it's it's super I think it's super easy to like, especially if like you're a duo and you have like it especially if you have like something like a banjo or like a mandolin it can be super easy to fall into repetitiveness I guess as far as like sounding for for for an audience, but like, they always felt fresh like every time like you heard them. And I can't what is the last record called like honeycomb? I think I think that was the last one. Yeah, there's a couple songs on there that there's a song called the Reaper called Reaper, I think that I thought was just phenomenal on there.
Joshua Ray Walker 28:05
Yeah, man, the good writers. They're just talented people. The they're both both doing solo stuff. Right now. Taylor Young was put out a single or two and John's writing for a second record. And yeah, they're still going out of CEOs every now and then and doing their radio show every Friday, Friday in Dallas. So yeah, they've they've just kind of always been around as long as I can remember?
Thomas Mooney 28:33
Yeah. Well, I mean, like Dallas, is okay. So it's such a big area, like we talked about earlier, but like, is there it just feels like there. When it comes to like the music scene, do we? Do we oversimplify it by like just grouping all of it together? Or do you feel like there's Sure.
Joshua Ray Walker 28:56
Like pockets, Dallas and Fort Worth in Denton, are all very distinct scenes. We're all trying to, well, oh, I don't know. Some people like that. They're distinct and they're separate. I'm kind of the thought that we should all be, you know, trying to mingle and play together. And that's what me and most of my friends try to do. But the sounds are different for sure. The players are different. You know, they're even though we're all in the same area. Like we're all really 45 minutes away, right? minimum. So it's not like we're out drinking together every night. We're like Dallas hangs out Fort Worth hangs out didn't hangs out. If you want to go out drinking with your buddy in Fort Worth, you're going to have to find a couch to crash on or something. Right. So like, it's just, you know, it's really not it's three distinct towns. But the fact that we're all close together like it we intermingle all the time. I mean, every good band I can think of has players from at least to me. Maybe all three of those cities. So when you go out on the road, yeah, you're all from DFW. Because, you know, that's just how it works. Yeah. But um, there's so many good players in each town. There's so many good writers. The amount of good songs being written in DFW right now is just absolutely insane. I was talking to my friends this week about South by and I'm on a couple big lineups that like last year I would have shot myself in the foot. So, you know, the fact that I'm on some some of these showcases is really mind blowing to me. The band at town, big velvet, you know, even just playing sax I've never played sax and pub playing the Saxon pub. I'm playing right after Michael Martin Murphy, which is like, right. That's insane. Yeah, I'm so pumped to meet him.
Thomas Mooney 30:52
The DFW guy, isn't he? Is he?
Joshua Ray Walker 30:55
I thought he was an Austin guy maybe just moved off.
Thomas Mooney 30:57
I think he's like born. Oh, really? They're like grew up there. That would?
Joshua Ray Walker 31:02
I mean, that would make sense. Yeah, of course. That was like I didn't know Steve Miller was born and lived in my neighborhood and went to a really same high school as all my friends till recently.
Thomas Mooney 31:11
I didn't know that either. I didn't know he was even from Texas.
Joshua Ray Walker 31:13
Yeah, yeah. Um, but anyway, I was looking at the showcases. I'm like, Oh my God. I know. I personally know half the people on the Showcase. Not because they have been playing big shows and I would go see them or whatever. But because we've all just been hanging out forever. Like that big velvet review has Frankie Leoni me, Vincent Neil Emerson is one of my good friends. The vandal years Quaker city, nighthawks. And a couple others, and then a couple of people I've met on the road like Jamie Wyatt, I've played shows with her. And it's just like, I this is gonna be the best party, you know, like, and the lineup, but man, it sounds really similar. So it's pretty. It's pretty crazy that I'm playing these shows, and I'm playing them with a lot of my friends. Yeah. Which is so cool. I feel like the DFW scene is all over South by this year. which feels good. Yeah, I want everybody to do well. So.
Thomas Mooney 32:11
I mean, there's been some really, especially in this Latin, this first quarter. I guess. There's been some really great records from the area. Yeah, I mean, you mentioned bandoliers. Quicker city nighthawks. Last week, your record for there's a bunch more than that. I just can't think of at the moment.
Joshua Ray Walker 32:27
Yeah. First quarter. I mean, I can't remember when did the the Leon bridges record come out? That came out? Like before the New Year, right.
Thomas Mooney 32:36
Yeah, I think so. Like, in that November area.
Joshua Ray Walker 32:39
Yeah, maybe. And then, you know, Texas gentlemen, they've done so much for the scene. That's a huge group of really good players. You know, medicine man revival. They haven't put out a record yet. But their singles are amazing. And it's just all I mean, I don't know if you watch the Grammys this year, but not because it was like I was watching something else that was I think it may have been during like a Dallas Mavericks game,
Thomas Mooney 33:06
right. I'm a big fan. But anyways, alright. Go dirt.
Joshua Ray Walker 33:11
Yeah, I was watching it. And like every single award had someone from DFW as a nominee. Yeah, the hip hop scene in Dallas is insane. Right now. The producers, I mean, yeah, just go look up the nominees for pretty much every hip hop producer award. And like half of them are from DFW. It's nuts. Yeah. I mean, just, you know, we have Grammy Award winning jazz bands, snarky puppies. From there. We have Grammy Award winning polka bands, brave combos from there, like, the scene is just so rich right now, with every type of music, you could want the noise, the crazy noise, like avant garde art scene is bubbling over right now. Like, there's just so much good music being made in DFW,
Thomas Mooney 34:00
it's awesome. We'll see. I had a lot of ways I envy that happening for like a place like Lubbock, because obviously love is just so much smaller, right? Your population is unable to support all these other styles of music like for loving it, we've always kind of like been a little bit more obviously more country than anything else. But you kind of I guess they they pick like a genre and go Okay, we're gonna be rock and roll. And this is all we can really support for a while and then it goes, you know, that kind of thing. But sure, it's a it's so crazy seeing like all these if you go to a big city like that, and being able to really see all kinds of music and stuff that that you wouldn't necessarily think would influence or even be associated with, with people that you kind of are familiar with. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Like you mentioned, like the poker stuff, like, yeah, that's crazy. You
Joshua Ray Walker 34:55
know what I mean? Yeah, I don't know. I not. I mean, you know, St. Vincent. Yeah, went to Lake Highlands. I think same school Steve Miller went to same school I went to for two weeks. And like she played, you know, like, we had a couple people from Dallas actually playing the Grammys this year.
Thomas Mooney 35:14
Yeah, she she whose record Did you produce recently or was going to? I don't know if it's out yet. There's a it's some I can't remember who is now. There's somebody fucking big though. There you go. Like oh
Joshua Ray Walker 35:29
shit. I know she used to work out a redwood and didn't. That's the band mid lakes band. Mackenzie Smith is a engineering producer there. He did St. Vincent's went to St. Vincent's album. He worked with Sarah Jaffe. I think he's in that band banquet. It's like that kind of supergroup that came together last year. But yeah, St. Vincent's worked out of that studio.
Thomas Mooney 35:55
I remember seeing mid Lake probably, like eight years ago, down the street here. at that big day festival thing that happens down now they were they were playing like a just a venue is like a new kind of indie rock venue. But they they've been used not around anymore. But what's down here now I know the cactus is right next door. Yeah, I mean, it's all kind of like in this lower area, or in this. I guess this is like the upper depot technically. Okay. Across 19th is the lower and that's where like where that venue was and then there was like a wild west was down there, which is you know, just your your, like Texas. Yeah, your your college town, Texas country kind of place but that place closed down. There was a couple of bars and stuff down there. But that kind of I don't know. It's kind of vacant over there right now. Yeah. What's going on?
Joshua Ray Walker 36:57
Man, I I'm really excited to play here tonight. Yeah, what do you think? You think the love of crowds gonna be into my, into my tunes? I think so. I'm gonna be honest. You scared? A little. I mean, I've been to shows here and it's, you know, it's usually pretty rowdy. You know? Loud honky Tonkin? Yeah, place. And I feel like, I'm rolling in here with a three piece gonna sing. I'm sad that singer songwriter country songs and it might add bumps and people out that are trying to dance you know, I hope Yeah, I mean, I
Thomas Mooney 37:33
hope they appreciate, I think, obviously, like a place like this. There's going to be a lot of people who just they go out on a Friday night because it's Friday night, right? You're gonna go regardless of the music that's playing, right. But I think that what's special about a place like blue light, is that since it's so small, there's just a natural intimacy that makes you in a lot of ways. If you're if you're good, it makes people like pay attention. They're gonna have to in a way, but of course, I've also seen, you know, we're needed. Yeah, we're getting eaten alive. Yeah, we're like, not like necessarily, like, no one's own beer bottles. Nothing like that.
Unknown Speaker 38:15
Not on any.
Joshua Ray Walker 38:16
Yeah. Was he loud room, people asking for George Strait?
Thomas Mooney 38:20
Yeah, that's why I'm not I've actually seen a lot of that. What we have a little bit is like the, what they've always called, like the loving stare where they they just metaphysician just no clapping or Yeah, nothing like there's no approval or disapproval. Just kind of looking at you, you know, kind of thing, but I don't know, I think I think it'd be good.
Joshua Ray Walker 38:42
I think it'd be. Yeah, I mean, we're gonna play good. So I hope people like it. We put a couple burners in there, you know, try to get people moving, get the right answer. And it'll be good. I'm just, you know, like I said, last time I came through here, I was opening. Yeah. And I was playing solo. So showing up to a city where I don't know anyone and playing a 90 minute set, you know, in a 300 cap room or whatever. Yeah. headlining where it's actually you know, like, my name my face. You know, who should put butts in the seats at night? It's a it's a new, it's a new for me. Right. So I'm still getting over that fear.
Thomas Mooney 39:22
Yeah. Well, you mentioned you know, you're going out of state. Yeah, playing a lot of shows. Yeah, we're gonna be announcing What does this show come out? I don't
Joshua Ray Walker 39:32
know sometime in the future. Next week, or well on Monday, okay, I'm announcing some dates. So I can go ahead and say, but yeah, I'm going out with old 90 sevens for four dates through, up through Illinois, down to Indiana. And then I'm going to play Newport, Kentucky, Nashville, and Knoxville on my own and then I'm going to meet Rhett Miller from old 90 sevens to open up for him solo through the Carolinas. And then I'll be headed home and playing Memphis, I think. And then coming home for a couple days, and then I'm going out with Charlie Crockett. Yeah, up through Kansas and Oklahoma. And then I'm driving right back. Straight from Lawrence down to green Hall. I'll be playing green hall for the first time opening up for Wade Bowen.
Thomas Mooney 40:32
That'd be cool.
Joshua Ray Walker 40:35
So yeah, I'm about to announce a lot of a lot of big dates, the biggest dates I've ever played. Yeah. And a whole string of I'm really gonna ask like,
Thomas Mooney 40:45
how was how was opening with BJ.
Joshua Ray Walker 40:48
I was great. Beaches. Amazing. He's been such a champion for my music and the album. telling people about me on social media all the time. Yeah, we, you know, he's great. When I when I open forum, he would go out before my set and kind of give the audit give me a little intro, tell the audience to be respectful, you know, pay attention. And that was just really nice. Such a nice guy. So cool to see someone who's worked so hard, you know, reaping the benefits, and he treats his audience so well. And with so much respect, he shakes everyone's hand as they're leaving. Yeah. And you know, he's doing it and he's making a living, and he's got his family on the road sometimes. And he's just, you know, it's kind of what we all hope to be doing if we want to make a career doing this. So it was really great to see that as an example. And like, you know, I'm ready to put the 10 or 15 years more work into it right. To get there. So, yeah, it was just good as encouraging. And he's been great.
Thomas Mooney 41:59
Yeah, he, I guess it was good to be. Yeah. The last American aquarium show. Here was in early December, and we had mentioned like, he was going to be announcing some solo dates, and that he was going to have you on a couple shows. He was we talked about you for a minute there about I guess he had heard Canyon, and it was just kind of like, called his booking guy was like, we need to do this now. Like, get this guy.
Joshua Ray Walker 42:28
His booking guy is john folk, red 11, which I'm actually on now. Yeah, I had a meeting with them in January when the record came out. And they picked me up. And they've been doing great work. And they put all these shows together. I can't wait to go play them. Right. And BJ, I guess December's prior around the time he heard the song and reached out to me on Twitter and stuff. So the fact that he's going around telling people talking to you about it. I mean, you know, yeah, he does. He doesn't need to do that. For me. He's got his own career to worry about. And that's just really cool that he would take the time to do that for somebody just because he heard a song.
Thomas Mooney 43:03
Yeah, that he liked. He mentioned, you mentioned the shaking everyone's hand after thing. Like, I think some people can see something like that and be like, Oh, he just doing that. So records and it's like, that guy's like genuine as hell. Yeah, that kind of shit. He's like,
Joshua Ray Walker 43:18
I mean, it doesn't hurt. You know, shaking your hand might sell a T shirt. But you know, he wants to tell people. Thank you. Yeah. Like, none of us would be able to do this. If there's like a deep appreciation. Yeah, people don't show up and want to hear what this whole industry is so strange. Like, I sit in my house, and I write a song and the fact that somebody would spend the time and money to drive across town and spend money to come see me sing that absolutely blows my mind. Right. And I think that he still feels that way and appreciates it the same even though he's been doing it, you know, over 10 years. And I hope that I feel the same way too. I mean, it. I certainly feel it now. So I don't think that'll wane. I mean, I every time someone shows up I mean, tonight, I might be surprised. Might be a full room. Who knows? And I'm sure I will be surprised.
Thomas Mooney 44:13
I hope so. And it'll be great. Yeah, but you want to go grab a beer. I'd love to grab a beer. That's it's been. It's been great talking to me. Thanks for having me.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai