2023 release. Billy Don Burns is the real deal. He's a no-nonsense kind of guy who prefers to let his songs speak for themselves. After all, he's been making music for more than fifty years and in that time, he's seen both the ups and downs of the music business and has honestly expressed himself in a decidedly uncompromising way. It's little wonder then that his songs have been recorded by the best in the business - a list that includes Willie Nelson, Johnny Paycheck, Tanya Tucker, Mel Tillis, and Sammy Kershaw, to name but a few. And now a new generation has come along and recorded his songs - Artists like Cody Jinks, Colter Wall, Whitey Morgan and others. "I make music because that's all I've ever done," Billy Don maintains. "It's all I know. I write because the songs come out of me and I'm privileged to be able to give them life." Billy Don's new album, "I've Seen A Lot of Highway, due for release on October 20th via Shooter Jennings' Black Country Rock label, provides an apt summation of both the struggles and successes he's seen over the course of his career. BDB and his guitar landed in Nashville in 1972. Within a few weeks Harlan Howard had signed him as a writer with Wilderness Music, where he met Lefty Frizzell, Tanya Tucker, Waylon Jennings, and Tommy Jennings. He was accepted in that crowd with Billy Joe Shaver, Lee Clayton, Billy Ray Reynolds, Steve Young, etc. He scored his first major cut by Connie Smith on Columbia Records in 1974. Over the years Burns became recognized as one of the original outlaws and great writers of country music. His songs pretty much tell his life story.