Joshua Ray Walker at the Raccoon Motel -- June 22.
Thursday, June 22, 7 p.m.
Raccoon Motel, 315 East Second Street, Davenport IA
Lauded by Rolling Stone as "one of country’s most fascinating young songwriters" and by Saving Country Music as "a big man with a high lonesome voice and heartfelt songs who is quickly rising up the independent country music depth charts," Joshua Ray Walker headlines a June 22concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel in support of his most recent release See You Next Time, which Americana Highways deemed "a fitting end to Walker's trilogy and its tribute to the fleeting, yet possibly life-changing, connection to be found at your nearest honky-tonk."
A native of East Dallas, Texas, Walker started playing guitar at age 12, and worked as a session musician before writing his first country song at 19. Through a burgeoning career that has found the singer/songwriter sharing stages with acts such as the Old 97's, the Vandoliers, Colter Wall, and American Aquarium's B.J. Barham, he released his debut album Wish You Were Here in 2019, a work that was the immediate beneficiary of ecstatic reviews. Americana Highways praised the recording of 10 songs as “an excellent album, especially so for a debut.” Saving Country Music, meanwhile, raved, “This is music that makes you palpably feel the raw emotions of run-down life and ragged dreams with no perfumes or filters to soften the pain ... . [Walker] pulls it off by penning tunes beyond his years, matching them up with a mournful sound worthy of the sorrow-soaked sentiments, and at times surprising you with the strong and powerful yodel.”
Walker's exuberant notices were even stronger for his followup album, 2020's Glad You Made It. In his Rolling Stone rave, Joseph Hudak wrote, "It’s Walker’s voice that ties it all together. His is a classically country voice, full of quavers and cracks. He yodels to open the track 'Loving Country,' and stretches out the word 'peace' into one 12-second note in 'Voices.' In the marvelous 'True Love,' he pops and hiccups his instrument like Dwight Yoakam." Wide Open Country's Bobby Moore called the recording "a broader picture of Walker's creative mind and musical talent." And Walker's laudatory notices continue with See You Next Time, which Spin magazine declared is a work "that marks him as one of country’s most exciting storytellers," while No Depression said it "closes three chapters in the country-music equivalent of the great American novel."
Joshua Ray Walker's headlines his Davenport engagement on June 22, admission is $20, and tickets are available by visiting TheRaccoonMotel.com.
