Josh Ward

Josh Ward sustains the classic honky-tonk tradition of Texas as a vocalist and composer whose country performances incorporate rock and blues inflections, building an expanding audience across his home state. Born in Houston on May 15, 1980, he first encountered music at age four by joining his family to perform vintage gospel hymns during Sunday church services. Country records filled the household, and by his teenage years he had developed a strong attachment to the genre’s foundational figures, including George Strait, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings. While still in high school he competed as an amateur rodeo rider; once he took up guitar he began performing in parking lots before taking his rides later the same day. In 2003 he entered a band and started working the Texas honky-tonk circuit, later spending time with a Western swing group before assembling his own ensemble. His debut studio EP, the eight-song Hard Whiskey, appeared in 2007. Following additional Southwest performances he issued his first full-length album, Promises, in 2012. Greg Hunt, whose prior credits include LeAnn Rimes and Pat Green, produced the set, which yielded five singles that each reached the Top 20 on Texas music charts. Texas Regional Radio subsequently named Ward New Male Vocalist of the Year in 2013. Two years afterward he released his second album, Holding Me Together, another regional success that placed four tracks at number one on the Texas Regional Radio listings. In 2018 he issued the full-length More Than I Deserve, which entered the Top 50 of the Billboard Independent Albums chart. The live recording Live at Billy Bob’s Texas followed in 2019.