Show Review: Joshua Ray Walker with Andrew Hibbard at the Turf Club
On a frigid Sunday night at the Turf Club in St. Paul, the headliner exceeded high expectations and the opener won over the crowd.
Joshua Ray Walker. Photo credit: Carol Roth.
Sunday can be a tough night for people to get themselves out of the house, especially when it’s February in Minnesota with a below-zero windchill. But I suspected this would be one of those bills that did the trick. And it did, eventually; the iconic St. Paul venue Turf Club slowly filled up until it was nearing capacity. The main draw: Texas songwriter Joshua Ray Walker, whose voice and music have been drawing buzz in Americana circles for a couple years and who’d conveniently had a charming guest appearance on The Tonight Show a few days earlier.
Jaclyn and I walked in not knowing much about either performer on the bill other than that buzz, which had been coming from friends as well as the socials. I’d been wanting to check Walker out for a while, but I put off listening to his music when I learned he’d be coming to town—not long after an August opening set for Charley Crockett at the same venue that I regretted having missed, especially when Crockett had to pull out of the 2021 Blue Ox Music Festival. I love experiencing an artist for the first time at a live show. (I actually met someone who’d done the exact same thing, so I’m not the only one!)
You don’t always get a do-over that soon after missing a national touring act, so I was grateful and excited for the show. I knew literally nothing about the opener, Andrew Hibbard, so of course I didn’t listen to a single note of his either. But, as is our way, Jaclyn and I made sure to get to the Turf in plenty of time to catch his whole set.
As is fairly customary, the crowd was light at first, enough to fill the tables and bar stools but not the open area in front of the stage. That creates a hush when the opener walks on stage that could be a bit unnerving. One thing I love about the Turf, though; the people that show up for the first act are there to see the first act. Part of the stillness is that the audience is actually listening and always appreciative in their applause after every song.
And sometimes, the opener begins to draw people closer. That was definitely the case with Ohio singer-songwriter Andrew Hibbard, who I later learned had two albums under his belt and a third coming out despite being only 24. I stood to one side at the front and watched the dance floor gradually fill, the whoops and cheers growing louder with each song.
Andrew Hibbard. Photo credit: Carol Roth.
Hibbard opened by elevating a standard blues shuffle with vibrant guitar and harmonica nuances, an in-the-pocket rhythm, and his voice. Effortlessly smooth and sonorous, it gave me shivers as it rang clearly through the room.
The very next song, a midtempo ballad with an old time country vibe called “Changes,” assured me that Hibbard’s set was going to be even better than that. He has a striking ability to move seamlessly from blues to country to folk and back again, nailing each genre so well that I’d be hard pressed to pick a favorite. I adored his covers of country-blues classics “C.C. Rider” and Jimmie Rodgers’ “My Little Lady” and a sweet, bouncy instrumental version of “Mr. Sandman.” But the moody folk-tinged songs he shared from his upcoming album were intriguing and beautiful, with dense, evocative lyrics. And although I’m not a huge fan of straight-up blues, watching him wail on the harmonica and create foot-stomping rhythms on his guitar was sheer pleasure, so I was glad he included those songs in his set as well.
When Hibbard asked the crowd to let him take a video for his social media, we were firmly in the palm of his hand and obliged with a huge, rousing final round of screams and applause. It also served to bring the energy way up in preparation for the headliner.
I’d been eyeing the pedal steel on stage all through Hibbard’s solo opening set, so I was pumped—and glued to the front of the room—as Joshua Ray Walker and his band came on. I love big dramatic entrances, but I also love when artists stroll up without fanfare and spend a few minutes making themselves comfortable, and this was the latter kind of entrance. But when they did start playing, it was with a burst of sound—drums, electric bass, pedal steel and electric guitar—that got everyone moving (and had me fumbling for my earplugs).
Joshua Ray Walker. Photo credit: Carol Roth.
Of all the buzz surrounding Walker, the most frequent things I’d heard were about his voice. Although I enjoyed the Texas-sized sound the band could produce, I was also a little sad that his voice wasn’t as dominant. I loved what I could hear, and I wished I could hear it as clearly as I had Hibbard’s. Nevertheless, I loved the sound, which was polished and together but not slick, and it did my heart good to see the obvious delight of the bandmembers at working together to create it.
A few songs in, I felt acclimated and removed my earplugs to try and catch more of Walker’s vocals. But I needn’t have worried—there were plenty of songs to come that did feature his voice front and center, and what. A. Voice.
Jaclyn and I tried to describe it to each other on the way home from the show. There’s a country yelp and twang to it, for sure, but also a strong, soulful undertone—which comes in handy on “Sexy After Dark,” a funk-infused track off his new album. He also has an uncanny falsetto that he can employ for short vocal breaks as well as extended notes that soar through the room and take your breath away.
It was impossible to take in all the lyrics with the fullness of everything going on in the show, but I loved what I heard—I could tell Walker is a born storyteller with an ear for phrases that are clever without being cliche. And his voice imbues everything with extra meaning—I’ve never enjoyed Lionel Ritchie’s “Hello” as much as I did when Walker turned it into a country stomper.
Maybe it was partly due to having had a successful gig at the Turf so recently, or maybe Walker’s just naturally a people person, but there was an almost tangible feeling of respect, appreciation and trust between the artists and the crowd. There’s a cadence and a rapport that can develop in a performance space, and I could sense it in this one. At one point Walker put it well: “Y’all know when to get rowdy and when to listen. There ain’t many rooms like this in—well, in the whole country!”
In lieu of an encore, the band left the stage and Walker sat down to do one more song solo. I was really convinced that Walker felt the same rapport I did when he shared with us that the memorial service for his mentor—the co-founder of State Fair Records who recently passed away unexpectedly, Trey Johnson—was that very night. Our hearts ached as he talked frankly about deciding to continue the tour instead of attending because he felt that Johnson’s spirit was more likely to be with him in the club than at a memorial service. Then he shared an anecdote and a song (“Flash Paper”) about wishing he could have communicated with his father more before he died. I’m sure I wasn’t the only parent (or offspring) who fought back tears during the thunderous applause that followed.
Jaclyn and I went into the night with high expectations even though we weren’t sure quite what to expect musically. We came out the other side hugely impressed and genuinely moved by both Joshua Ray Walker and Andrew Hibbard. Nearly every show we go to is special and enjoyable on some level, but we agreed this was one of those next-level events that we won’t soon forget.
Carol Roth at Turf Club. Photo credit: Dan Lee.
Carol Roth is a full-time marketing copywriter and the main music journalist and social media publicist for Adventures in Americana. In addition to studying the guitar and songwriting, Carol’s additional creative side hustle is writing self-proclaimed “trashy” novels under the pseudonym T.A. Berkeley!
