Featured Artists

Featured Artist: Billy Don Burns

By twangthang ⋅ May 18, 2008 ⋅ Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Every now and then you find an artist that causes you to sit back, scratch your head, and say, “Where in the world have you been? How have I missed you?” Billy Don Burn is one of those artists. He’s been around for a while. His bio is dotted with “oh yeah” interactions with some of country music’s brightest. If you’re already familiar, thanks for forgiving us for playing catch up here.

If your not familiar, let us introduce you: Don’t expect sweet, sugary, “what a perfect life I have” type of music. Honest, gritty, raw, soul-filled and emotionally charged describe Arkansas native Billy Don Burns.

With a smokey voice he writes and sings about the dark side of drug addiction, lasting love, outlaws, heartbreak, loneliness, and the like. Billy Don has worked with the late-Porter Wagoner, who introduced Billy to the Opry. His song “Desperate Men” (with Hank Cochran) hit the #1 position in the Gavin Americana charts, bumping Johnny Cash (his idol) from the top spot. Cash sent him a note congratulating him for that feat — one of Billy’s proudest moments.

Burns penned songs have been recorded by Willie Nelson, Connie Smith, Mel Tillis and Sammy Kershaw.

With five CDs to his credit, he has toured all over the world and has a strong fan base. His lastest CD, The Berlin Tapes, is acoustic: just his signature voice and his guitar. He recently wrote and recorded a song in tribute to the original outlaw, Waylon Jennings, called “When Waylon Came To Town.”

http://www.billydonburns.com/
http://www.myspace.com/billydonburns

-ccf