Until his most recent record, most of Joshua Ray Walker’s songs have taken place in honky-tonks. The Dallas country artist released a trio of albums based on the bars where he’d play and the people who drank in them. But his newest record, Tropicana, has a much sunnier sound.
Walker put it together while finishing treatment for cancer. The 10-song album draws on others who have dipped their toes in the beach cowboy genre like Jimmy Buffett and George Strait.
Walker spoke to the Texas Standard about writing “Tropicana.” Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: So, “Tropicana”… a state of mind, a real place? Give us a backstory on the setting for the album.
Joshua Ray Walker: “Tropicana” is wherever you want it to be. It’s not a real place. It’s based on a fictional motel I dreamed up on a nondescript beach.
You know, I couldn’t leave Dallas for a year while I was going through treatment. I had a six months of chemotherapy and a couple big surgeries. And I’ve traveled my whole adult life.
So I had some cabin fever for sure, and Jimmy Buffett passed away around that time, and so I kind of just went back through the catalog, and I think those two things combined led to me writing my first beach country songs, and then I decided to make a whole record of it.
See, you say “Tropi-cahn-a,” and I thought it was “Tropi-can-a” because I’ve heard it that way most of my life. So clearly, even though you say that it’s various places, it sounds like you’ve got some place in mind somehow.
I mean, it might have a little Spanish flair to it. I think “Tropi-can-a” reminds me of the orange juice. “Tropi-cahn-a” was my, I guess, kind of where I came up with the name was, I was thinking of “Americana” but on a beach. So it’s “Tropi-cahn-a.”
I have to ask you, how are things going with your treatment?
It’s going great. I’ve had a couple rounds of clean scans now, so I’m cancer-free at the moment. I can’t stand in remission for another four and a half years, but I’m currently cancer-free, which is great compared to my prognosis at the end of last year.
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That is wonderful, that is fantastic to hear. This diagnosis came out of the blue. I think you had that live release, “I Opened For The Killers And All I Got Was Appendicitis,” something like that.
That’s right. That’s how I found out that I was sick.
Is that right?
Yeah, I had my appendix ruptured during a show with The Killers.
I was sick all day, and I decided I wasn’t going to cancel the show, and I played through it, and then I had to go to the hospital, and my appendix had perforated, and they had to do a CT scan, and they found a mass in my colon. That’s how I found out I had cancer.
I want to hear more about how this period has affected your music, because obviously you say you felt stir crazy and I think a lot of times when musicians, in particular, are faced with physical challenges, they turn sort of introspective.
Did you find yourself doing that sort of thing or were you fighting that temptation or what was going on with your songwriting at the time?
You know, it was kind of two sides. I had some stuff that was like “Tropicana,” which was pretty lighthearted.
And then I had more contemplative stuff that is more about mortality and legacy and all the things you think about whenever you get told you might be dying. I definitely had some serious songs as well.
On “Tropicana,” do you have a favorite song?
Man, that’s hard, especially when an album’s new.
But I love “Tropicana” because that kind of was where the whole idea for the record came from, you know? I like listening to it. I don’t listen to my own music very often, you know. I find it awkward, but I can listen to “Tropicana,” so that’s nice.
And then I just had a great time writing and recording and playing “Keys to the Tacoma.” That track is much poppier than what I usually write and perform, and it is just a blast to play. So I gotta say, that’s one of my favorites right now, too.
