Bman's Blues Report

8 BALL AITKEN NOMINATED AGAIN… TOURING AGAIN… AND NEEDING YOUR HELP TO RECORD   Hi Folks, Nashville is like a big bubbling hot-tub full of fun ideas. This year, I have written 12 of the most barn-raising bad-a$$ songs that I have ever pointed a guitar at. I’m in the corner pocket, beyond the 8 Ball, and laying them down soon in the studio, working with some top Nashville session musicians. Here’s a taste of one of the new songs on the NEW RAINBOW FLAME GUITAR... Birthday present from the best fans in the world. http://youtu.be/SX43mvGC9q4 Now, this is where it gets exciting. YOU CAN BE A PART OF IT! We are offering some wild’n’crazy cool incentives to everybody who contributes as a crowd-sourcing co-producer (Yes! That’s your official title!) If you’ve ever wanted to be in the music industry, this is your big opportunity. First of all, for the Aussies, we can offer tax-deductibility for donations via an umbrella organisati...

Launching 8 Ball Aitken's 'HILLBILLY DISCO' Click here to view on Youtube -- http://youtu.be/PiYQzWdxvnE 8 Ball Aitken has been touring for the last 5 weeks in Florida and Texas. This month he plays in Tennessee, and also on the Gold Coast of Queensland, Australia. Parties out in the sticks have a way of snow-balling. At first, it’s just a close circle of friends, and then somebody invites all their cousins, and the good ol’ boys down the road turn up with a truck full of cold beer, and somebody texts the local rockabilly girls. Next thing you know, there’s generators humming, a circle of pick-up trucks (that’s ‘utes’ for the Aussies) are spotlighting the makeshift dance floor, and the farmer’s hay-barn has been turned into a full-on sound and light spectacular, right down to the mirror-ball. The cows don’t know WHAT to think (not that they ever think much). There is a technical term for this uniquely rural phenomenon –...

8 Ball Aitken's current single, 'I'M GOING TO JAIL',  has just hit the #1 spot in the Australian Top 20 (98.9FM Radio Charts). This is 8 Ball's first number #1 radio chart hit. We genuinely appreciate all the requesting that his fans have done since the song's release -- and a big THANK YOU to all the radio stations who have been playing the track. (8 Ball's album 'SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE' is also number #4 in the Australian Blues & Roots Chart this month.) 'I'M GOING TO JAIL' is also number #7 in the national Country Tracks Top 30 -- we want to get this up to #1! You can make a genuine difference. If you want to help get him to a national #1 hit, please keep requesting 8 Ball on the radio. Please email us if you need the contact details for your local radio station. You can share this link with all your friends -- 'I'M GOING TO JAIL' -- http://youtu.be/C4g579-5nlo For full 8 Ball Aitken tour dates, please...

8 Ball Aitken’s New Single ‘I’M GOING TO JAIL’ Enters Charts… ‘SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE’ Album Released In Time For Christmas All I want for Christmas… is for my fans, stalkers, groupies, cousins (including everyone with red-hair from Australia), pets, intelligent indoor house-plants, and Santa Claus to request my new music video ‘I’M GOING TO JAIL’ on CMC (Country Music Channel Australia). Please spare me 30 seconds and do it now. I need your help and I appreciate your support. You need to log in to CMC online with this link… http://www.countrymusicchannel.com.au/request_single_search GOOD NEWS:   My new single ‘I’M GOING TO JAIL’ has entered the Australian Country Tracks Top 30 at number 28 this week. Whoo hoo! Thank you DJs. Please keep spinning it and boost it upwards. I need the bail money to get out of jail for Christmas! Otherwise I will have to climp up the chimney and break out. Ha ha!!! MORE GOOD NEWS:  8 Bal...

SHE'S GOING TO MEXICO... I'M GOING TO JAIL Gossip, rumours, and innuendo… we love it! What’s this -- 8 Ball’s in jail? And what’s this about a hillbilly disco? The fibre-optic bush telegraph is heating up overtime as rumours are flying faster than a jumbo jet taking off from Nashville International Airport. Some folks are saying he’s been busted by the culture police for having too much long, red hair to play country music. Some say he’s clocked up too many speeding tickets for playing guitar faster than the average chicken-picker. A card-carrying one-off, the man himself has named his crime, and now he’s doing the time – sentenced to playing over 200 gigs a year, with no chance of parole (or a holiday). “Maybe you could call it musical break and enter,” 8 Ball laughs. “When nobody would open any doors for us, we just kicked a few in.” Although his legions of devoted fans don’t seem to mind that he’s kicked in the doors ...

Great News -- My beard grew back really quickly!     Hi friends, Greetings from Nashville in the springtime. My beard grew back really quickly! Check out my new music video -- THE OTHER SIDE .  Ha ha!!! Don't worry, I am still smooth as an 8 Ball rolling across the velvet....

I just received and had the pleasure to listen to 8 Ball Aitken's new release, ALIVE IN TAMWORTH . First I gotta tell you that you may look at 8 Ball and think he's not serious but I'll tell you... he is! His music is presented with a lighthearted attack but it's really hard not to have a good time listening to this. 8 Ball is a really fine player and a terrific showman and you can tell just listening to the recording that the crowd is really digging it. I can tell you a number of times in the 4 or 5 times I've listened to this recording I've thought "this really needs to be seen in person". 8 ball puts on a great show and I'd love to see him in person. If you like delta swampy music with a big touch of humor 8 Ball is your guy. I will mention that the cd is live and mostly acoustic resonator... it really adds to the basic sound! The interaction with the crowd really adds to the feel of the cd. I also think that hearing the names of some of the so...

Australia’s best-loved banana picker (turned full‐time guitar picker) 8 Ball Aitken is touring with his award winning third album, ‘REBEL WITH A CAUSE’. 8 Ball Aitken is authentic ‐‐ a real‐deal 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 blues, roots & country music. 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. A life‐changing conversation with an Aboriginal elder, who told him he should pursue a career in music, convinced...