3 Balls of Fire

Burnin’ Mike Vernon’s 3 Balls of Fire – "the men with the burning guitars" – has led the way for instrumental bands in Austin since 1987 and now brought their original, high octane, road-tested, surf-drenched Texas twang to California. They dip into in surf guitar, hotrod music, crimejazz, Hollywood soundtrack, martini lounge favorites and cowboy exotica from the Sixties with a bluesy twang that 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 - the man Rolling Stone's David Fricke described as "Fender-bending" - 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. When not heading up the Balls, Vernon often plays with the legendary Davie Allen & the Arrows.

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.

2010 finds the Balls in fine form and smoking.