RIP Jerry Jeff Walker

The Outlaw as a Young Man

Hansel and Gretel (public domain image via Wikimedia)

You know “Mr. Bojangles.”

You probably know the “Texas troubadour” (from New York) who was a primary influence on what would become outlaw music and alt-country.

So instead let’s add to the obits for Jerry Jeff Walker a milestone that most people have never heard, his work in the 60’s folk-rock group Circus Maximus (who get a 3-sentence bio on AllMusic).

In my rather biased opinion, if Walker had written only “Hansel and Gretel,” he would have deserved a four-star rating in the history of popular music. (Though of course he has contributed so much more to the story of our lives.)

A giant has left us, and the long shadow of his passing will endure wherever there is light.