Jerry Jeff

iTunes Review

This 1978 effort is about as a close to a straightforward rock album as Jerry Jeff Walker ever got. The self-deprecating cover art pokes fun at Walker’s sheepishness over an album that could be interpreted as a sell-out by his longtime country fans. While Jerry Jeff is slicker than the rural romps that Walker made in the early 1970s, it definitely does not betray the singer’s rakish personality. Besides, the brash blues and boogie of “Lone Wolf,” “Bad News” and “Boogie Man” have always been integral part of the Austin scene that gave birth to Walker’s signature sound. Even with his newfound penchant for burly horn parts, songs like “I’m Not Strange” provide the same kind of freewheeling, beer-hoisting sing-alongs that have always been Walker’s stock-in-trade. Though he became famous for his portrayals of people on the margins of society — think of “Mr. Bojangles” or “Charlie Dunn” — he now seems more interested in places. Whether it’s the hobo camps of “Eastern Avenue River Railway Blues” or the summery Texas scenery of “Banks of the Old Bandera,” Walker’s woody voice brings to life unseen vignettes of American life.