ROUTES & BRANCHES: JOSHUA RAY WALKER – GLAD YOU MADE IT

By Scott Foley, July 5, 2020 

Below is an excerpt from the album review of Joshua Ray Walker’s “Glad You Made It”:

“I’m not giving away any secrets by saying that sorrow is a key aspect of country music.  It’s common knowledge that the genre is fueled by melancholy, disillusion, tragedy, darkness, heartbreak, loneliness and life’s little disappointments.  In the process of turning much of country music on its head, the mainstream expression has largely lost that thread of sadness.  Curiously, listeners currently seem to gravitate more towards songs about good times.  I suppose this is alright, but it’s not where Joshua Ray Walker comes from.

On his 2018 debut, Wish You Were Here, the Dallas resident introduced himself on one of that year’s strongest songs.  From “Canyon”: I’m a big big man / Not just in size or in stature / In terms of space that can’t be filled / I’m a bottomless canyon / Without a drop to spill.  Walker delivered these lines and others on the record in a voice that has known sorrow, a high and lonesome yodel that borrows as much from his grandfather’s bluegrass record collection as from country classics and new traditionalists. “

Read Routes & Branches full review HERE.