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After a month-long tour that saw him play venues from Brooklyn to Boston with the Vandoliers, slay crowds aboard the Outlaw Country Cruise and return to the Grand Ole Opry stage, Joshua Ray Walker made his CBS Saturday morning debut this weekend.
The Dallas, Texas, songwriter delivered three songs from his latest album, See you next time. Backed by his tight AF band – bassist Billy Kuykendall, drummer Trey Pendergrass and pedal-steel maestro Adam “Ditch” Kurtz – Walker tore through “Three Strikes” and “Sexy After Dark” before playing a shocking solo rendition of “Flash”. Paper,” a song written about his late father.
“Three Strikes” was a particularly explosive honky-tonk burst, with Walker singing about rolling the DUI dice after another night at the bar: “Cause it’s one, two, three strikes a crime / If I keep messing around, this drinking will get the best of me.”
See you next timewho added horns to Walker’s maligned sound via fan favorite “Sexy After Dark,” is the follow-up to Walker’s 2020 LP Glad you made it, an album that found him writing sharp songs about subjects as diverse as boat-show models and suicide. “I write these heartfelt songs, but at the end of the day, if we want to make a living, we’re really just selling beer,” Walker shared. Rolling stones. “We get paid to drive for longer and load gear and stay up late trying to get people to buy alcohol. That is our job.”
Walker returns to the road next week with shows in Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma. He and the band will play the annual roots music fundraiser known as MerleFest in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, on April 27 and embark on a West Coast run with Jade Jackson in May.
