Billy Don Burns is one of the few remaining original outlaw country music singer/songwriters. His long and hard road paved with honky-tonk reality has taken him from his origins in Stone County, Arkansas, to thousands of smoke-filled honky-tonks around the world, and even center stage of the Grand Ole Opry. It is most notably Billy Don’s work as a songwriter that has garnered him some of his greatest accolades. He lives the life he writes about in his songs. He writes with brutal honesty and has been described as the Warrior Poet”. The country music world has consistently recognized Billy Don Burns’ contributions. His songs have been recorded by classic country artists including Willie Nelson, Johnny Paycheck, Sammy Kershaw, Mel Tillis, Connie Smith, Hank Cochran, and many others. He’s produced albums for Merle Haggard and Johnny Paycheck.
Billy Don’s album “Desperate Men” (1996), which he recorded with Hank Cochran, unseated his hero Johnny Cash, who had been number one for fourteen weeks on the Gavin Americana charts. When he unseated the Man in Black, Johnny wrote him a letter congratulating him on his number one. To Billy, that was the biggest thing that happened to him in his career. Some of Billy’s friends sang on the “Heroes, Friends and Other Troubled Souls” (2005) album with him. Willie Nelson and Hank Cochran sang on “Patsy”, and Tanya Tucker sang on “Mississippi”. Cody Jinks recorded two of Billy’s songs from the album “Nights When I’m Sober” (2012). His songs have drawn the attention and praise of a new generation of country musicians like Colter Wall, Whitey Morgan and others. Shooter Jennings produced an album on BDB titled “A Night in Room 8” (2016). Billy’s latest album, “The Country Blues” was nominated for the Album of the Year at the 2021 Arkansas Country Music Awards.