× Joshua Ray Walker embarks on European tour in August/September

Joshua Ray Walker embarks on European tour in August/September

09-05-2022

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 the misfits 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 Walker’s globally acclaimed 2019 debut Wish You Were Here and its equally lauded follow-up Glad You Made It (the #5 entry on Rolling Stone’s 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 album’s taking place on the night before the bar closes forever—the 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 album’s immaculately crafted but timelessly vital sound provides a prime backdrop for Walker’s 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 character’s perspective lets me examine things about myself without ever feeling too self-conscious about it,” he points out. Closely informed by the tremendous loss he’s 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.

In August/September Joshua Ray Walker embarks on a European tour:

10/08: Oslo, NO - Krøsset
11/08: Oslo, NO - Krøsset
12/08: Kristiansand, NO - Vaktbua
13/08: Bergen, NO - Ole Bull
16/08: Tromsø, NO - Blårock Café
18/08: Henningsvær, NO - Trevarefabrikken
19/08: Bodø, NO - Parkenfestivalen
20/08: Trondheim, NO - P Stereo
21/08: Falkenberg, SWE - Rootsy Summer
22/08: Stockholm, SWE - Himlavalvet
24/08: Copenhagen, DK - Stairway
25/08: Hamburg, DE - Nochtwache
26/08: Hassocks, UK - Mid Sussex Americana Festival
27/08: London, UK - o2 Academy2
28/08: Luttleworth, UK - The Long Road 
29/08: Gateshead, UK - Gosforth Civic Theatre
30/08: Glasgow, UK - Endless Summer
31/08: Nottingham, UK - The Running Horse
01/09: Birkenhead, UK - Future Yard
03/09: Nantes, FR - White Shelter
04/09: Clermont-Ferrand, FR -.Chorus-Live 
06/09: Krefeld, DE - Kulturrampe
08/09: Utrecht, NL - TivoliVredenburg
10/09: Enschede, NL - Tuckerville
11/09: Asten, NL - Misty Fields
11/09: Oostende, BE - Leffingeleuren Festival

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