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3 Balls of Fire

TRES HUEVOS DE FUEGO

About Me

20 YEARS,
3 BALLS
Get a full set of Balls for your CD collection HERE!

Burnin’ Mike Vernon’s 3 Balls of Fire – "the men with the burning guitars" – have led the way for instrumental bands in Austin since 1987. The popular trio from the Lone Star State perform original, high octane, road-tested, surf-drenched Texas twang. They dip into in surf guitar, hotrod music, lounge favorites, and cowboy exotica from the Sixties and their bluesy twang is incendiary.

3 Balls of Fire have four critically acclaimed CDs available: Live at Ego’s (2000), Firepower, (2003) Chrome and Water (2004), and Best of the Balls 1988-2000, a reissue of the 1998 classic with six bonus tracks. 3BF can also be heard on various compilations including Quite A Party and For a Few Guitars More. "With FirePower,” London's Maverick Magazine praised, “Vernon has done for surf music what Brian Wilson did for pop music.”

As an in-demand guitarist, Burnin' Mike Vernon has played with Jerry Cole, Wanda Jackson, the Ventures' Bob Spalding and Nokie Edwards, George Tomsco & the Fireballs, and Dick Dale's band Slacktone, among others. The late Link Wray hand-picked Vernon to play with him and lead his band in Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans 2005. 3 Balls of Fire headlined the Austin Music Awards at SXSW in March 2006 and at London’s Pipeline Festival in April 2006.

Vernon’s distinctive compositions appear in a variety of TV and radio formats including the WB, Fox Sports, ABC Sports, E! Television, Discovery Channel, OutdoorLife Channel, PBS, and NPR. He also composed entire score for the Emmy award-winning documentary Masters of Texas BBQ. Because instrumentals lend themselves so well to themes and background music, his music has been heard on Swedish, Mexican, British, Spanish, Australian, and Danish TV and radio. As one reviewer noted, "No one sounds like 3 Balls of Fire and 3Balls of Fire sound like no one else!"

With uniformly excellent reviews over the years for his recordings, Vernon recently turned his talents to producing. In 2005, Vernon produced, compile, and annotate Quite A Party! for London’s Ace Records, with 24 vintage and current bands paying tribute to the groundbreaking Texas-New Mexico group The Fireballs. Ace Records also tapped Vernon to act as series producer for the new Jerry Cole/Crown series for their esteemed label. Hot Rod Twangin' is the first to acknowledge the estimable Cole as not only a first-call studio musician but the king of hot rod guitar. Vernon’s upcoming releases include studio and production work with Texas songwriting legend Jo Carol Pierce.

Summer 2007 finds 3 Balls of Fire booking up fast and headed to Southern California in late June. 2007 also marks the Texas trio's 20th anniversary and the band says a big "thank you for all the support and good vibes that have come our way from around the world.” Mike wants to also thank all the great musicians that have played, recorded and contributed to the successes of 3 Balls of Fire over these many years. Listen for a new 3 Balls of Fire CD, due this autumn!


LISTEN TO 3 BALLS OF FIRE WITH JERRY COLE ON AUSTIN'S KUT-FM, NOVEMBER 2006

WEBSITE: 3 Balls of Fire
BOOKING: Mike Vernon, [email protected]



Girlfriend Ink

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 2/17/2006
Band Website: www.3BallsofFire.com" 3BallsofFire.com
Influences: Link Wray, The Ventures, Jerry Cole, Freddie King, The Fireballs, Jeff Beck, Billy Mure, Les Baxter, Manuel Ponce, Ennio Morricone, Miles Davis, Dick Dale, Henry Mancini, Brian Wilson, The Beatles, The Shadows, Jimi Hendrix and many more!
Sounds Like:

Record Label: Deep Eddy Records, Ace Records
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

Balls holed up in the studio....

3 Balls of Fire are in the studio recording 13 songs set for release in Jan. '08. In addition to the usual Austin gigs, we'll be busy recording what I hope will be our coolest...
Posted by 3 Balls of Fire on Tue, 19 Jun 2007 10:48:00 PST

Holywood, Fuzz, Dennis Quaid and a Rumble!

Our summer featured three spectacular events. First I was honered to be asked to help coordianate and lead the band at Dennis Quiads Charity Show in June at Austin Film Studios. In addition to perform...
Posted by 3 Balls of Fire on Sat, 24 Mar 2007 05:28:00 PST

David Fricke of Rolling Stone writes.....

David Fricke, whose byline is seen most often on the cover of Rolling Stone, wrote a bang-up 4-star review for the Austin Chronicle of the Fireballs tribute CD, Quite a Party! Burnin' Mike Vernon was ...
Posted by 3 Balls of Fire on Wed, 03 May 2006 09:11:00 PST