Ain't Dead Yet

Singer/Songwriter Joshua Ray Walker’s made a name for himself with poignant, human portraits of flawed, fascinating characters. Now, on his latest album, Ain’t Dead Yet, Walker’s telling a more personal story – his own. Beneath the album’s flippant title resides some of Walker’s heaviest storytelling yet. Three years ago, when he started writing his sixth studio album, 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. Ain’t Dead Yet is often lyrically somber, but sonically, it’s reminiscent of Walker’s early albums, relying on pedal steel and fiddle as much as