Michael Ballew

It took a complete return to his origins for Michael Ballew to locate his proper musical setting. Born in Texas, he launched his performing life inside the state’s taverns and energetic clubs, delivering four sets nightly before resolving to test his prospects in California throughout the 1960s. On the West Coast the singer/songwriter embraced rock & roll and reached greater commercial heights than he had known in Texas. White Whale Records tendered his first recording agreement in 1967. Additional offers later arrived from Warner Bros., Columbia, EMI America, Liberty, and Pentagram. Ballew and his rock groups stationed on the West Coast appeared on the charts repeatedly while serving as backing musicians for leading acts of the period, among them Steppenwolf, Loggins & Messina, Eric Burdon & the Animals, and Country Joe & the Fish.

Even so, the combined lure of Texas and country music prompted his return. He settled in Austin in 1976, motivated in part by the fact that several artists based there had already cut his songs. Still residing in Austin, he regularly crosses the state to share stages with country performers that include Alan Jackson, Leroy Parnell, Asleep at the Wheel, Willie Nelson, Michael Martin Murphy, Jerry Jeff Walker, Bonnie Raitt, and Doc Watson. Ballew’s compositions have appeared in motion pictures and on television programs such as Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and The Dolly Parton Christmas Special. From 1992 onward the singer/songwriter completed fourteen tours of Europe that included dates in Denmark, Switzerland, Holland, Germany, and Austria. He performed at Austin’s Frank Erwin Center for the 1995 inauguration of George Bush as Texas governor. In 2002 Ballew and the Damn Good Texas Band appeared at festivals in the Czech Republic, Germany, and France. Chart entries came with “Pretending Fool” and “Your Daddy Don't Live in Heaven (He's in Houston).”