Jerry Jeff Walker - Vanguard Visionaries (2007)

Jerry Jeff Walker's volume in the Vanguard Visionaries series is compiled from his single solo album for the label, and his two earliest recordings with the band Circus Maximus, covering the years between 1967 and 1969. All ten of these selections are available on the far more extensive Best of the Vanguard Years, which contains twice as many cuts. Even for the price this is a tough one to recommend simply because while it is true that Walker wrote his legendary standard "Mr. Bojangles" during this period, he hadn't yet arrived as the songwriter he would become just a few years later after relocating to Austin, TX. © Thom Jurek