Link Wray, The Ventures, Jerry Cole, Freddie King, The Fireballs, Jeff Beck, Billy Mure, Les Baxter, Manuel Ponce, Ennio Morricone, Miles Davis, Dick Dale, Henry Mancini, Brian Wilson, The Beatles, Gil Evans, Jimi Hendrix and many more!
Sounds Like
At a record store near you!
JET SET GUITARS
*****
BEST OF THE BALLS
*****
CHROME & WATER
*****
FIREPOWER
*****
FRIDAY NIGHT AT EGO'S LOUNGE
*****
BEST OF THE BALLS I
*****
And no collection is complete without this cassette classic!
Burnin’ Mike Vernon’s 3 Balls of Fire – "the men with the burning guitars" – have led the way for instrumental bands in Austin since 1987. The popular trio from the Lone Star State perform original, high octane, road-tested, surf-drenched Texas twang. They dip into in surf guitar, hotrod music, lounge favorites, and cowboy exotica from the Sixties and their bluesy twang is incendiary.
In addition to 2008's smokin' Jet Set Guitars, 3 Balls of Fire have four critically acclaimed CDs available: Live at Ego’s (2000), Firepower, (2003) Chrome and Water (2004), and Best of the Balls 1988-2000, a reissue of the 1998 classic with six bonus tracks. 3BF can also be heard on various compilations including Quite A Party and For a Few Guitars More. "With FirePower,” London's Maverick Magazine praised, “Vernon has done for surf music what Brian Wilson did for pop music.”
As an in-demand guitarist, Burnin' Mike Vernon has played with Jerry Cole, Wanda Jackson, the Ventures' Bob Spalding and Nokie Edwards, George Tomsco & the Fireballs, and Dick Dale's band Slacktone, among others. The late Link Wray hand-picked Vernon to play with him and lead his band in Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans 2005. 3 Balls of Fire headlined the Austin Music Awards at SXSW in March 2006 and at London’s Pipeline Festival in April 2006.
Vernon’s distinctive compositions appear in a variety of TV and radio formats including the WB, Fox Sports, ABC Sports, E! Television, Discovery Channel, OutdoorLife Channel, PBS, and NPR. He also composed entire score for the Emmy award-winning documentary Masters of Texas BBQ. Because instrumentals lend themselves so well to themes and background music, his music has been heard on Swedish, Mexican, British, Spanish, Australian, and Danish TV and radio. As one reviewer noted, "No one sounds like 3 Balls of Fire and 3Balls of Fire sound like no one else!"
With uniformly excellent reviews over the years for his recordings, Vernon recently turned his talents to producing, most recently co-producing with Bob Irwin the Jerry Cole psychedelia collection Guitar Freakout for Sundazed. In 2005, Vernon produced, compile, and annotate Quite A Party! for London’s Ace Records, with 24 vintage and current bands paying tribute to the groundbreaking Texas-New Mexico group The Fireballs. Ace Records also tapped Vernon to act as series producer for the new Jerry Cole/Crown series for their esteemed label. Hot Rod Twangin' is the first to acknowledge the estimable Cole as not only a first-call studio musician but the king of hot rod guitar. Vernon’s recent releases include studio and production work with Texas songwriting legend Jo Carol Pierce on Dog of Love.
2009 finds the Balls in fine form. In 2007, the Texas trio celebrated their 20th anniversary and the band says a big "thank you for all the support and good vibes that have come our way from around the world.” Mike wants to also thank all the great musicians that have played, recorded and contributed to the successes of 3 Balls of Fire over these many years.
LISTEN TO 3 BALLS OF FIRE WITH JERRY COLE ON AUSTIN'S KUT-FM, NOVEMBER 2006
The Rumble at the Redwood was ragin' ! Thank you Burnin' Mike for putting a great show together and for letting me play. Truly I was honored to be on a night with those legends of surf that you brought together. And 3 Balls of Fire did a great set - I caught some on video too. Thanks again and keep stokin' the fire
Ruby Jane Article in New York Times!! http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/26/who-do-these-guys-think-they-are/ AND Check out the new pictures and video! Let me know what you think! Ruby Jane
Skully Records is accepting submissions for the remaining spots on Gothabilly: Racin’ The Devil, the highly anticipated fourth installment in our internationally acclaimed Gothabilly compilation series. For full details please visit the submissions page at www.SkullyEnterprises.com
Last week state Rep. Wayne Christian pulled a sly move in the legislature and created an exception to the Texas Open Beaches Act that allows him and his neighbors on Bolivar Peninsula to build houses on the PUBLIC BEACH.
This is bad news.
We have a campaign to convince Texas Governor Rick Perry to veto this bad bill.
This is very simple and your email could make the difference.
Hello, it's me, Ruby Jane.To those who don't know me, I am a 14 year old fiddler, songwriter. I have some songs posted that are fresh out of the studio. Let me know if you like the new songs..be one of the first to hear, even before they are released!Thanks! new videos too! Ruby Jane