A kid from upstate New York named Ronald went AWOL from the National Guard, wrote one of the most covered songs in American history, then walked away from that fame to help invent Texas outlaw country. Jerry Jeff Walker — the gypsy songman — reshaped American music by flat-out refusing to play the industry's game.

A jail-cell encounter with a tap-dancing drifter who called himself Bojangles became the gritty character study Mr. Bojangles — and instead of cashing in, Walker headed for Austin's raw outlaw scene alongside Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Townes Van Zandt. There he proved you didn't need Nashville's assembly line to make country music that mattered, building his own world and letting the industry come to him.

• Wrote Mr. Bojangles after meeting a tap-dancing drifter hiding his name in a jail cell

•  ...