# 6 Years Ago Today, We Lost the Outlaw Country Legend Whose Songs Were Covered by Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/6-years-ago-today-we-lost-the-outlaw-country-legend-whose-songs-were-covered-by-bob-dylan-willie-nelson-and-the-nitty-gritty-dirt-band/
- Published: 2026-10-23T14:30:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-23T15:56:46+00:00
- Original publisher: American Songwriter
- Original article: https://americansongwriter.com/6-years-ago-today-we-lost-the-outlaw-country-legend-whose-songs-were-covered-by-bob-dylan-willie-nelson-and-the-nitty-gritty-dirt-band/
- Topics: Art, Culture, Entertainment, Music

## Key points

- Jerry Jeff Walker died aged 78 in 2020.
- “Mr. Bojangles” became a hit for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
- His live album *Viva Terlingua* is an outlaw country classic.

## Summary

Jerry Jeff Walker, a key figure in Texas’s outlaw country scene, died in Austin on 23 October 2020, aged 78, after throat cancer. Though he had limited mainstream chart success, his songs and performances influenced country and folk artists, and “Mr. Bojangles” became widely known through recordings by other musicians.

Born Ronald Clyde Crosby in New York, Walker began as a folk musician, joined the Greenwich Village scene and released his first solo album, *Mr. Bojangles*, in 1968. The title song reached No. 77 on the US Hot 100 in his version, then No. 9 for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band; Bob Dylan, Dolly Parton and others also recorded it. Walker co-wrote “Railroad Lady” with Jimmy Buffett, and his 1973 live album *Viva Terlingua*, recorded in Luckenbach, Texas, is regarded as an outlaw country classic.

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