Following the announcement of his new album, Ain’t Dead Yet (out May 29 via East Dallas Records/Thirty Tigers), Joshua Ray Walker has confirmed he’ll return to the UK this July:
July 28 – The Lower Third – London, ENG
July 29 – The Deaf Institute – Manchester, ENG
July 30 – The Hug and Pint – Glasgow, SCO
Tickets on sale Wednesday, April 1 at 10am BST.
Three years ago, when he started writing Ain’t Dead Yet, Walker hadn’t yet received the cancer diagnosis that rearranged and threatened his life (he currently has a clean bill of health). But that year was still uncommonly fraught with mental, physical, and career stresses. Pulling the songs out of the can to finalize them for the album – including re-writing and re-working almost all the songs – Walker, who was then undergoing and recovering from cancer treatment, was surprised by their prescience.
“That whole year I just felt awful and like I was dying. I didn’t feel right, and mentally I was off, like there really was something wrong the whole time,” Walker says. “So I think the reason some of these songs feel the way they do is because I felt that way, even though I didn’t know something was wrong yet.”
Song ideas come to Walker from many places, and he honors two of the most personal ones on “Capital Letters.” Written for two important mentors – Walker’s grandpa (about whom he wrote his first song ever, “Fondly,” which was released on his 2019 debut, Wish You Were Here), and Trey Johnson, co-founder of Walker’s first label – the song is Walker’s way of honoring the roles these long-gone loved ones still play in his life. Sometimes he finds himself talking to them, seeking their advice; others he even wonders if they have some hand in the songs he writes.
Ain’t Dead Yet is Walker’s time capsule of the past three years. Standing on the other side, it’s also a dedication to the future. “I’m really grateful to have a second chance, and I’m also grateful to have lived through thinking I was going to die. It gives you perspective in a way you really can’t fake until you’ve actually done it; in a way, it was kind of a gift,” Walker says, though sometimes a new beginning also feels like a lot to live up to.
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