Music: CountryUSA: Frankie Ballard enters stage guitaring and singing ...

Leading webs+t in the country-music genre and its field of listeners with big ears swarming toward the nearest truest sound,  Great American Country is the place to watch.  I recently happened upon this brief on GAC, "Frankie Ballard Biography" (I just found it today and don't see any documentation or even mention of Ballard's actual age.) I think they're trying to keep floating the urban legend that this guy is still 18, but more l+lk 28, I'd say.

GAC's Franki Ballard Biography

Hailing from Battle Creek, MI, Frankie Ballard may be a newcomer to Nashville, but his edgy country rock sounds like the work of someone deeply at home in Music City. His heartfelt first single, "Tell Me You Get Lonely," is a power mid-tempo song, but a slow down for this singer and powerful guitar slinger. Currently at work on his upcoming debut album for Reprise Records with producer Michael Knox (Jason Aldean), Frankie keeps things rolling on songs like "Get On Down the Road" and "While The Sun Sleeps," which is brim with a brash, youthful vigor and potent high energy.

The fleet-fingered Frankie got his start singing Elvis songs with his dad at the age of five and jokes that he shot his first music video in the family basement when he was seven. Obsessed with baseball and intent on becoming a professional athlete, Frankie didn’t learn to play guitar until he was 18, but once he did, it was full-steam ahead as he locked himself in his room for hours a day to master the instrument. He began playing in blues bands, juggling weeknight gigs with his weekend college baseball commitments. Eventually, music won out, and in the summer of 2008, Frankie won Kenny Chesney’s "Next Big Star" regional competition in Michigan.

Frankie Ballard photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Nashville.

He opened for Chesney at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids and at Ford Field in Detroit, which led to a publishing deal with Sony ATV, Morris Artists Management (Alabama, Kenny Chesney) representation, and a recording contract with Reprise Records. Frankie moved to Nashville in April 2009 and began recording songs penned by such hit makers as Dallas Davidson (Trace Adkins, Brooks & Dunn) and David Lee Murphy (Jason Aldean) on his debut album. Listen for his first single, "Tell Me You Get Lonely," off his forthcoming Reprise Records debut album, which has already landed inside the Top 40 on the country charts.

-- Country Gal, posting GAC stuff and commenting,