Joshua Ray Walker's slow, epic road from Dallas to Nashville stardom

Joshua Ray Walker has emerged as an unlikely star on Music City's largest stages.

On April 14, Walker, a Texas-based country crooner, will open for Wheeler Walker (no relation) at the Ryman Auditorium. One day later, he will make his debut at the Grand Ole Opry.

In a conversation with The Tennessean, Walker, 31, explained his unique appeal and why his Nashville trip merely scratches the surface of what he has to offer country music's mainstream.

It's taken country fans, and perhaps some media outlets, time to embrace Walker's rising star. But now, one year after the release of singles such as the soulful, countrified, and retro-tinged ballad "Sexy After Dark," Walker is here, and ready with each performance to show why he belongs.

Along with fellow North Dallas natives like Leon Bridges and Charley Crockett, Walker's talents are less evident in an environment where data points supersede charisma and critical acclaim as identifiers of star power.

In October 2021, Walker sang the national anthem before the U.S. Grand Prix F1 race in Austin, in front of a live audience of 400,000 —including race starter Shaquille O'Neal — and a global television audience of close to 90 million. Still, his appeal requires deeper, unearthed conversations.

'His songs are so powerful'

Walker's work blends a mythological essence with fearless authenticity. Generations ago, being able to convince the public that you had mammoth talent that matched a gargantuan persona was important. Unfortunately, a deluge of three-piece suited balladeers and neo-traditionalists with movie-star looks, plus the influence of rock and roll, hip-hop and the digital age whittled that away.

Walker fits into those seemingly forgotten throwback ideas of country stardom. Foremost, he's a pale mountain of a man — tall and broad in equal measure. He is also fond of wearing trucker hats over a mullet of bleach-blond hair that has an ever-present faint streak of dyed aqua green coloring.

A handshake with tattooed fingers filled with silver rings opens the door to what feels like his timeless attraction taking root.

Charley Crockett is a Dallas-area native and star on the rise with whom Walker shares roots as a performer on the city's street corners and open mic scene of the late 2000s.

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"When seen against the field of talent he's compared to, Joshua is a generational talent," Crockett said of his fellow Texan. "He's the only guy that I've ever seen who just needs himself and his guitar — not even a band — to bring a crowd of 500 to 1,500 in a club to complete silence every single night.

"I'd also say he's like a Bob Dylan or Odetta in their early periods, too. Just like those two, his songs are so powerful."

Walker's epic stories unfold

Walker discussed his future in country music at Big Al's Deli — a Southern comfort food spot in North Nashville beloved by the likes of John Prine. Breakfast feels like the start of something epic.

Instead, a soft, yet clear-spoken conversation unfolds.

While sprinkling hot sauce on an already-somewhat-spicy side of biscuit gravy, Walker dived into his background.

He picked up his first instrument, a tenor banjo, at age 4. He may have a photographic memory of fans.

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"I remember about 99 percent of people I meet," he said.

This, alongside meeting a small village of people, directly speaks to why his three-album in three-year run — 2019's "Wish You Were Here," 2020's "Glad You Made It," and 2021's "See You Next Time" — resonated with his growing fanbase.

"I would hole up in my house and write stories about people's dreams and aspirations that I'd hear when we're talking and drinking," he added. A litany of stories followed about late bar nights at open mics, sharing cheese enchiladas with friends at an iconic Mexican restaurant chain in Dallas, El Fenix, and now enjoying the variety of spending three out of every four weeks on the road.

"I also listen to a ton of Prince and Lionel Richie," Walker said. "I also think Lizzo's the best pop artist of the past decade. Of course, I listen to a lot of Post Malone, too."

But, of course, as with all things Joshua Ray Walker, wait for a second, and epic stories unexpectedly evolve.

"Well, my diverse tastes in music also comes a lot from my grandfather," he added before taking a bite of a fried sunny-side-up egg, shifting to settle in his folding chair and unfurling another incredible tale.

"In the third grade, (my grandfather) dropped out of school to make money for his family in Tennessee's Cumberland Gap. Then, he lied about his age and joined the Navy at 16, and was stationed in Japan for four years. After that, he returned and moved to New York City and became a Broadway choreographer, competitive ballroom dancer and dance instructor at a location of the Arthur Murray School of Dance. Once the dance craze died, he moved around doing blue-collar labor and settled in Texas, living in the other half of a duplex beside my parents and me.

"While he was there, he was a maintenance man and home builder, who sold and pawned reclaimed electronics and hardware he'd pick up from dumpster diving."

Walker's time with the record collection his grandfather amassed highlights itself when he sings and plays in service to a uniquely pop-ready song's larger connective aims.

Dallas artists are 'finding our own way'

Listen close to the previously mentioned "Sexy After Dark," and afternoons in his grandfather's garage hearing trumpets on Fela Kuti's African funk anthems, intricate melodies of Brazilian folk records and the simple yet impacting gravitas of bluegrass records (what Walker calls "cowboy songs with cattle-calling yodels") by Slim Whitman are apparent.

It's why he believes his music exists in this gray area between country, folk and Americana. It's a space where the labels have changed. And now, he wants to tell more stories about himself.

On the back of Dallas artists like Bridges, Crockett and Walker, it's apparent that country music's future could be preparing for a decidedly Western swing. However, if what emerges continues to mimic this trio's iconoclastic desires, it will also resurrect sorely-missing mythology and storytelling-driven songwriting to the genre.

"I have a circle of ten to twelve friends who are all really good writers," Walker explained, "and until recently, we didn't realize that we were good because, since nobody was really paying attention to what was happening in Dallas, we had no context of how good we were."

Now they do.

"We're bringing high-quality songwriting to country music's mainstream, and finding our own way."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Joshua Ray Walker's slow, epic road from Dallas to Nashville stardom