I just wanted to jump in here and say that it’s Jerry Jeff Walker’s birthday, and he has been one of the primary dudes I jam since I was 14 or so, so he helped make me a pretty weird kid. He wrote his famous song Mr. Bojangles while in jail in New Orleans, and has a host of other solid hits with equally classic backstories. He has always been a folk singer, and hitchhiked, busked and rambled throughout the 50s and 60s until he helped found the outlaw country movement in the 1970s. He tells old stories on stage inbetween songs and seemed to be like a magical drifter, like someone your dad used to know but isn’t allowed to see anymore. One of my other old favorites, Todd Snider, does the same and counts him as his biggest inspiration.



He had the first ever “live” album not recorded in a studio when he hauled recording equipment to the Luckenbach dance hall, which was back then an empty place he liked to get drunk at with his friends and Luckenbach’s inaugural mayor, Hondo Crouch.



His music helped me grow, regress, understand the world and myself and wallow in it all.

Here’s a few of his songs that really touched me:



Stoney – blows Mr. Bojangles away, best story song he does in my self-acclaimed expert opinion.

Pot Can’t Call the Kettle Black – just a fun song, and I still can’t to this day say “pot can’t call the kettle black” to someone without singing it like this and dancing a little jig.



I Feel Like Hank Williams Tonight – literally the best song to get your 14 year old wallow on after a heartache, and it still holds up pretty good.



Alright, he has a lot more songs that are great, but I realized I would just be adding to this all day instead of something I need to be doing. He is 77 and in not great health, so if you get the opportunity to see him you better hop on it.



Who are some of the people that you were crazy about when you were young?