Jerry Jeff Walker was born Ronald Clyde Crosby in 1942 and was raised in Oneonta, New York. He was a singin’ drifter throughout the 60s, during which time he made two albums with a psychedelic folk-rock group called Circus Maximus and put out a few records of his own, including one that contained his soon-to-be-a-classic “Mr. Bojangles.” In the early 70s he settled down in the Austin, Texas, area and became a beloved figure in the state.
In a Texas Monthly tribute after Walker’s death from throat cancer in 2020, the irony of this Texas icon being a native New Yorker was addressed by famed news anchor Dan Rather: “He appreciated Texas culture so much. It’s a cliché, but they say a convert to Catholicism, or any religion, is sometimes more passionate about it than those who were born into it. And that was the case with Jerry Jeff and Texas.” Lyle Lovett said, “Jerry Jeff adopted Texas and he underscored aspects of Texas, our culture, that people from here too often take for granted.”
Of course, as Walker himself had clarified: “I don’t live in Texas. I live in Austin.”
¡TERLINGUA BLOG! 