The Allman Brothers Band, Johnny Cash, J.J Cale, Bob Dylan, Hound Dog Taylor, Elmore James, Magic Sam, Skip James, Son House, Albert King, Freddie King, B.B King, The Grateful Dead, Steve Earle, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, John Fogerty, Tony Joe White, Seasick Steve, R.L Burnside, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Neil Young, Daddy Cool, Buddy Miller.
Australia’s best loved banana picker (turned full-time guitar picker) 8 Ball Aitken has recently released his award winning third album, ‘REBEL WITH A CAUSE’, which is available now through MGM Distribution, recorded on vintage analogue equipment and produced by notable producer Garth Porter (ex-Sherbet).
8 Ball Aitken is authentic -- a real-deal Aussie character who rattles the roof, stomps the planks, and gets his audiences whooping and hollering along in a frenzy of pure exuberance. He plays a sizzling hot blend of original country, blues & roots music. 8 Ball’s material delivers a fresh serve of honk, stomp, Aussie swamp music, straight from the Mareeba Delta -- roots music with balls.
The red-headed Queenslander’s singles ‘CYCLONE COUNTRY’ & ‘HANDS ON TOP OF THE WHEEL’ have both been top 10 country hits around Australia in 2008 / 2009. ‘CYCLONE COUNTRY’ earned 8 Ball a 2009 Golden Guitar nomination for ‘Best New Talent’.
The first single ‘COWBOY MOVIE’ (from album ‘REBEL WITH A CAUSE’) has received radio airplay right around the world in twenty-six countries, including charting in the European Country Music Top 40. Another song, ‘YELLOW MOON’ has won the 2008 EMI Music Blues & Roots Song of the Year at the Q Song Awards. He has also been awarded the 2008 Southern Stars ‘Male Rising Star’ Award.
8 Ball has performed several international tours, travelling to nine different countries. He is returning to Australia fresh from the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas in the USA. During his recent North American tour, he performed as a featured artist at Canadian Music Week. He’s toured in Japan four times, where he headlined the popular Rokko Sun Music Festival. In 2008, he has played a string of dates in Singapore, the UK (including a live appearance on the BBC), Poland, and Finland. He has also recently returned from his third tour of Fiji, where he was employed by the Australian government, performing music as a cultural ambassador on behalf of DFAT and Austrade.
8 Ball is touring Australia throughout 2009 in support of ‘REBEL WITH A CAUSE’, playing a wide range of festivals, clubs, pubs and special events. Highlights of his Australian touring so far include the East Coast Blues & Roots Festival in Byron Bay, the Woodford Folk Festival, the Tamworth Country Music Festival, the Gympie Muster, the Australian National Blues Festival in Goulburn, Blues at Bridgetown, Mud Bulls & Music, Coastfest, Peats Ridge Festival, as well as the Melbourne & Adelaide Fringe Festivals.
Coming from a farming community in Far North Queensland, 8 Ball Aitken is the oldest son of an impoverished family of twelve children. 8 Ball spent his adolescence on a banana plantation, living in a rough tobacco shed with resident rats, bats, snakes, and spiders as his sleeping companions. He started work as a farm labourer aged fifteen, doing back-breakingly hard work on the mango and banana plantations of the Atherton Tablelands, a man's work for a boy's pay. He had to help support his family with these wages.
When 8 Ball was nineteen years old, a radical conversation altered his life path. “I used to work on a farm all week, then party all weekend,” he explains. “An Aboriginal elder from Townsville was visiting my town, and we were talking on Sunday morning after he had been watching me play guitar all weekend. He sat me down and told me off sternly – ‘I will be really disappointed if I visit next year and see you still here drinking and smoking, just wasting your talent and your life away,” explains the ex-farm worker, recalling his labouring in the Atherton Tablelands fruit plantations as a young teenager. He packed his bags, grabbed his guitar, and hitch-hiked south to the Big Smoke of Brisbane. “This was a ‘time stands still’, life-changing experience”, adds 8 Ball. “From that point on, I have stayed true, and followed my dream of making music and taking it out to the people”.
Some 8 Ball Aitken festival performances include:
Canadian Music Week (CANADA) - 2009
Stan Rogers Festival (CANADA) - 2009
Rocko Sun Music (JAPAN) - 2008
Inkandsbanan Festival (SWEDEN) - 2009
Country Truckstop Festival (DENMARK) - 2009
East Coast Blues & Roots Festival (Byron Bay) – 2007
Woodford Folk Festival - 2002, 2005
Gympie Muster – 2005, 2008
Tamworth Country Music Festival - 2007, 2008, 2009
Undara Outback Country Rock & Blues Festival 2009
Mud Bulls & Music 2008
Brisbane Festival 2008
Blues At Bridgetown 2008
Australian National Blues Festival (Goulburn) – 2007
Grass Roots Music Festival, Brisbane - 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
Big Sound 2008
Q-Song Awards 2008
Greenfest 2008
Thuringowa River Festival (Townsville) - 2007
Suma Beach Festival (JAPAN) – 2007
Yagubi World Music Festival (Hervey Bay) – 2007
Beenleigh Jamboree – 2007
Roots By The River – 2005, 2006, 2007
Peats Ridge Festival (Sydney) - 2006
Brisbane Blues Festival – 2003, 2004, 2006
Sunshine Coast Blues Festival - 2005, 2006
Earthbeat Festival (Mildura) - 2006
Coastfest (Sydney) – 2006
Groove and Grape Festival (Brisbane) - 2006
Adelaide Fringe Festival – 2006
Melbourne Fringe Festival – 2006
Blues on Broadbeach - 2006
Mackay Festival of the Arts - 2005, 2006
Valley Fiesta (Brisbane) - 2005
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Buddy! :) Hope you had a good pre-BD! I know you'll be in transit on the day. Sorry we couldn't make it! Hoping to be fighting fit on your return.
hey 8 ball ^_^ please check out our new demo up now and pass the blackbirds myspace around! tell us what your doing and keep the comments coming.! xx emma.
Great music! Thanks for your friendship, and welcome aboard the Redline ship. Looking forward to sharing the journey ahead with you. Take Care, and thanks again. Peace,
It was Channel 815 on Foxtel, the Country Music channel. My girlfriend and I were just going through the music channels and the video clip gave us a laugh, so we found the lyrics and started watching the video a couple of times.
The new reviews are listed below, and you can click them to go the website. The top image of every review will take you to the music. I'm hoping you get to hear something new and have a little fun.
Kara Grainger's "Grand and Green River" ~ Heaven and Hell and Blues You Can Feel Extra Golden "Thank You Very Quickly" ~ A Bright Light From Kenya and The Poconos Mariah Parker "Sangria" ~ Intoxicating unsquare Indo-Latin Dance of Maya music Adrian Belew "Side Two" ~ 21st Century composition from the chrysalis of Nuevo Metal born . . . Wussy (Eponymous) ~ This Wussy Will Hit You Like A Truck IsWhat?! "NuTakes" ~ Avant Jazz Hip Hop Genius Terry Riley "The Cusp of Magic" ~ Kronos Quartet & Wu Man.. Cedar Hill Refugees "Pale Imperfect Diamond" ~ Uzbek musicians, Appalachian singers and songs Laurier Tiernan "The End Of The World" ~ Punk Spirit, Folk Heart
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