Joshua Ray Walker's European tour is confirmed and takes place in August/September

A working musician since the age of 13, Joshua Ray Walker first began honing his lyrical talents after the death of his beloved grandfather. “My granddad’s the one who got me into music, and I wrote a song called ‘Fondly’ in the parking lot of the hospital he was in,” recalls Walker, who was 19 at the time. “Back then I was mostly playing rock and punk and blues and metal, but I quickly realized that the songs I was writing were country songs.”

Raised on bluegrass, he lists Texas legends like Guy Clark and Billy Joe Shaver among his essential inspirations, but also notes the undeniable influence of country superstars like Alan Jackson and George Strait (“All those ’90s country songs were so hook-driven, they really bored into my brain,” he says). With the arrival of Wish You Were Here (an album that spent 12 consecutive weeks on the Americana radio albums chart), Walker won lavish praise from outlets like NPR Music and began performing with artists such as Colter Wall and Charley Crockett, in addition to headlining tours in the US and Europe. Hailed by No Depression as “an album that outshines expectations for what country music can, and should, sound like,”

Glad You Made It earned the admiration of leading critics like Ann Powers (“a new voice who really impressed me”), with its singles featured on such coveted playlists as Spotify’s Indigo and Tidal’s Best of Country 2020. Over the years, Walker has continually captivated crowds with his magnetic live show.

On his latest album See You Next Time, Texas-bred singer/songwriter Joshua Ray Walker shares an imagined yet truthful portrait of a brokedown honky-tonk and the misfits who call it home: barflies and wannabe cowboys, bleary-eyed dreamers and hopelessly lost souls. The album marks the final installment in a trilogy that originated with Walker’s globally acclaimed 2019 debut Wish You Were Here and its equally lauded follow-up Glad You Made It (the #5 entry on Rolling Stone’s Best Country and Americana Albums of 2020 list).

“The whole idea with the trilogy was to use the honky-tonk as a setting where all these different characters could interact with each other,” says Walker, who drew immense inspiration from the local dive bars he first started sneaking into and gigging at as a teenager growing up in East Dallas. “In my mind, this album’s taking place on the night before the bar closes forever—the songs are just me taking snapshots of that world, and all the moments that happen in it.”

It's now finally happening: Joshua Ray Walker tours Europe this August/September:

11/08: Kristiansand, NO - Vaktbua
13/08: Oslo, NO - Cosmopolite
14/08: Trondheim, NO - Trykkeriet
15/08: Bergen, NO - Ole Bull (Bergen Live Sessions)
17/08: Stavanger, NO - Tou Scene
18/08: Bodø, NO - Parkenfestivalen
20/08: Stockholm, SWE - Stockholm Roots
22/08: Gothenburg, SWE - Pustervik
23/08: Malmö, SWE - Folk å Rock
24/08: Tønder, DK - Tønder Festival
25/08: Tønder, DK - Tønder Festival
27/08: Stanford Hall, UK - The Long Road
28/08: Hamburg, DE - Nochtwache
30/08: Nijmegen, NL - Merleyn
31/08: Amsterdam, NL - Het Zonnehuis
02/09: London, UK - Oslo
03/09: Newcastle, UK - The Cluny 2
04/09: Glasgow, UK - The Hug & Pint
05/09: Manchester, UK - The Deaf Institute
06/09: Brighton, UK - The Prince Albert
08/09: Cologne, DE - Blue Shell
09/09: Enschede, NL - Tuckerville
10/09: Berlin, DE - Privat Club