Put A Record On: Joshua Ray Walker

On a fantastic musician who's staring down some scary odds.

By Natalie

It’s really hard to know what to say when the stakes are this high; words quickly feel pretty redundant. As we mentioned in Tuesday’s newsletter, Joshua Ray Walker shared that his colon cancer has spread to his lungs — those same lungs that have been fueling his preternaturally powerful voice through fireworks that he makes sound routine, whether you’re seeing him live or listening to one of his consistently wonderful albums.

Josh is a friend of the newsletter, and a neighbor and friend here in Dallas; his music has soundtracked some of my favorite times since moving to Texas, mostly because of the persistent evangelizing of my way early adopter husband Jonny. He made me listen to Josh as we were driving across the country multiple times to see each other in 2020; three years later, we wound up playing “Sexy After Dark” at our wedding.

Now, when I’m away from Texas and miss my now-home, I listen to Josh as well as his former bandmates the Ottoman Turks. Selfishly, Josh and his wonderful lungs have played a huge part in my own past few years, whether I was walking around New York listening to “Bronco Billy’s,” or straight up sobbing alongside everyone at Double Wide as we sang the last refrain of “Voices” days after State Fair Records co-founder Trey Johnson died suddenly — all at a show that was supposed to be celebrating Josh’s Tonight Show debut.

He’s already shared a whole bevy of timeless and compelling songs that I think stand alone (there’s a playlist of some of them at the bottom of this post). But, again selfishly, I want more; most importantly, I want Josh to be around for his friends and family. He has a GoFundMe, something that in a just country would not be the most reliable way to fund unforeseen medical expenses. But we don’t live in a just country, and as a fellow freelancer I can’t imagine the strain that Josh is under as he tries to get well and stay afloat; if you can give, I’m sure he’d be very grateful (maybe even buy some merch, IDK). If you can’t, maybe keep him in your thoughts — Josh, we’re sending all the good vibes for a quick and full recovery.

If you want to learn more about Josh’s music, we had him in the DRTI Zoom Room for a chat about his covers album What Is It Even? — the full audio of that conversation is available in podcast form, and an edited Q&A pulled from it is available for all subscribers below. My husband Jonny also wrote a great piece about him for D Magazine and one for Texas Monthly if you want to learn more about him from someone who knows his story better than most!

Below is a playlist of a few favorite songs of Josh’s…