Various Artists Bear Family Country Outlaw Bundle (6-CD)

Making what they used to call 'outlaw' music, Michael Ballew has absolutely nothing in common with the singing Ken and Barbie dolls coming out of Nashville. This is spare, underproduced music that allows the focus to settle firmly on the songs. Thirteen titles include, Damned Old Beer, Songs On The Radio, All Alone In San Antone, and Where Are The Rangers.

'Now this,' said one reviewer, 'is country. Just a couple of guys in a Texas honky tonk.' Michael Ballew's songs are a tapestry of Texas life and music. A lot of country, a little swing, a taste of Tex-Mex. It's the sound of warm nights and cold beer. On numerous performances in the USA and Europe this nice Texan guy with his unmistakeable voice has proven how a full blooded musician can inspire any audience, just with his guitar and his voice. Michael Ballew puts his heart in every single performance, at big festivals, privat cowboy or ranch parties or just in front of three guests in a roadhouse somewhere on this planet. This CD is an impressive proof of his live-capabilities. The 18 titles include Damned Ol' Beer, I Can't Drive Home, Texas Gal, I'm Leavin' These Honky Tonks, Sixteen Tons, The Cowboy And the Preacher and I Love Texas.

In 1981, Austin Texas-based Bear Family recording star Michael Ballew was signed to Liberty Records. Two singles were released, Your Daddy Don't Live In Heaven and Pretending Fool. Both hit the country charts and an album was planned but never released. Now Bear Family is making all of Michael Ballew's Liberty recordings available...the two singles plus the unreleased album. 

Live recordings featuring the Oklahoma-born folk, country, and blues singer/songwriter and guitarist, James Talley. The recordings were made in 1979 at the Great Southeast Music Hall, Atlanta, Georgia, and at the Lone Star Cafe, New York, NY. Personnel: James Talley - vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar; Larry Chaney - vocals, electric guitar; John Salem - vocals, keyboards; Peter Keeble - drums.

Billy Stone is one of those rare Texas-bred singer-songwriters whose songs flow easily from country to southern-rock, from folk to R&B, from rock 'n' roll to pin-drop quiet. Best of all, they're all Billy Stone songs. A Dallas, Texas native and Nashville resident since the late Seventies, Billy Stone resists the tag, Nashville-Songwriter. 'I write songs for people and if a country act or rock act or whatever hears something and records it, great, but my main focus is to call 'em as I see 'em.' Artists who have recorded Billy Stone's songs include The Forester Sisters, Johnny Lee, Gary Stewart, The Carter Family, Jimmy Hall and 

Dan Toler, Vassar Clements, Bertie Higgins, Joe Sun, Billy 'Crash' Craddock and David Frizzell. 25 songs here include This Old 22, Grandma's Old Gas Stove, Ain't No Tellin' What A Fool Will Do, 

Sight For Sore Ears etc..