Hailing from Chattanooga, Tennessee ( home of theNational Tow Truck Museum) Husky Burnette accompanied by drummer Burma Shave brings a rough, shambolic yet fist-tight blues that stomps, honks and grinds it out. My ol' neighbor lady'd say "That's Nasty!" She'd be so right. Husky and Burma rock it like a beast and that's how we like it, baby. Hunched, sweatin', swaggerin' and all up on ya. Think of a hair more trad early Black Diamond Heavies (also once a Chattanooga band) when Mark "Porkchop" Holderstill played guitar with them, or a grunge R.L. 

Husky is lettin' loose a new live disc sometime this year (we'll hope for sooner than later) as well as a studio release (rumored to include an appearance by a top-secret-super-special-guest. I can't tell you a thing about it cuz Husky'd hafta kill me. Think of the children). I thought you might like to get to know Husky Burnette a bit better being as y'all will be hearing a lot more from each other soon so I asked him a few of the basic Q's: 

When did you start playing guitar? Play anything else?

I started seriously playing guitar at age 12. I mess around with piano but can't play anything but chords.

How'd you and Burma meet and start playing together?We both live in/around Chattanooga and have played in bands based in North Georgia/Chattanooga. He played with a damn good road band called The Tennessee Rounders and then Bathtub Gin, so by us being in bands around here we knew each other from the "scene" basically. after pursuing the "solo artist" thing, I had been through 3 different drummers and I took a much needed break from traveling so much. during that time I parted ways with the last drummer, called Dave up, he wasn't playing and was more than stoked to do it. We quickly found how how well we click and mesh. Now life and drummer status is great. He makes me sound good!

What'd ya do before playing more or less solo?Before the solo thing I played lead guitar for singer/songwriter Roger Alan Wade for about 2.5 years (fantastic songwriter!! check him out if you haven't). After that I helped start the band Polecat Boogie Revival (guys from the band Hellstomper). Gained some status, toured a lot, recorded an EP and a couple good singles, then it played out. After parting with them I pursued the solo deal, tired of "almost" getting something done. Got the 'if you want something done right, do it yourself' attitude. Now here I am.

Influences? Tons. Here's a few: Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Furry Lewis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, R.L. Burnside, Lee Michaels, my family: Johnny Burnette, Dorsey Burnette and Tim Burnette, Tom Waits, Son House, Jr Walker, Jimmy Reed, Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Hound Dog Taylor, Hendrix/Band of Gypsys, Legendary Shack Shakers, Jesus Lizard, Cramps, The Gories. 
fyi: Husky is related to Rocky and Billy Burnette, too.

Thanks to Rick Saunders Visit  Real Deep Blues Blog
http://realdeepblues.blogspot.com/2010/02/husky-burnette.html

1. Reading thru your bio. I noticed that you have some family history in rockabilly tell the readers a little about that ….

Well, the whole family on the Burnette side plays at least one instrument. Johnny Burnette and Dorsey Burnette, of the Johnny Burnette Rock N Roll Trio, are my 3rd cousins. I never got a chance to hang out with them which is a shame. I can just imagine what it would’ve been like to hang out and jam one good time with them! I’ve heard lots of stories about them and lots from my uncle and great uncle about my folks traveling from Chattanooga to Memphis in the 50s and 60s to visit “the family” and old quotes from Grandpa, like how “his boy is in a band…plays music. Supposed to be purdy good at it”. The great uncle I spoke of used to load his piano in the back of a pickup and have my great grandfather drive him around town here, playing rockabilly and boogie woogie tunes for tips til they drew a crowd. I guess it’s in the blood.

2. Who turned you on to the sound of a cigarbox guitar ?

Who knows who turned me on to the sound, really. I’ve always dug the sound of any unorthodox hillbilly instrument. I’ve plucked on them before, never owned one until recently. The first time I actually got to play one for any length of time was with Jim Mitchell (owner-operator for Cigar City Guitars) and Nick Redditt (Mojo Medicine Show on savingcountrymusic.com). I can blame their asses for getting me hooked on playing cbg’s as well as endorsed by Jim’s Cigar City Guitars.

3. Do consider yourself a singer or a storyteller ?

I don’t consider myself a singer… definitely not a good singer! I’d go with storyteller. I’ve always been into the countrified folky storytelling singer/songwriters. Roger Alan Wade, Guy Clark, Mississippi John Hurt, Gram Parsons, Kristofferson, Townes, the list goes on. So when i started writing blues tunes, i wrote 100% about real things in my life, no fiction, a real story. Of course, everyone has songs that are made up stories, but they come from somewhere ya know? Those guys influenced my lyric writing as much or more than anyone. If I can take my bad times and struggles and turn them into good-time, fun, enjoyable tunes then it was all worth it.


4. Any good road stories you’d like to share ?

You want wholesome? Dangerous? Violent? Plum crazy? I suppose the tour bus driver for Exodus and Malevolent Creation trying to run our van over in Chicago is a good one…but then there’s the guy I knocked out in Orlando for breaking in our motel room…or me and Roger Alan Wade running around motels in Nashville in socks and barefoot… Or me and Tonky Ponk jamming with Leon Russell’s band backstage after the show in Maryville,TN…And Tonky Ponk leaving his underwear at a biker clubhouse down in Georgia.
Screw it. There’s too many stories…


5. What are your thought about Hank Williams not being a member of the Grand Ole Opry even thought they use his name and image in promotions etc.. ?

It’s rude, crude and unacceptable. Hank Williams IS country, so what’s the hold-up??? I just think it’s wrong on so many levels….

anything else you’d like to share with the readers ?

Ill be on an east coast tour all of july…FL/AL/GA run in august.
I have a new EP (possible split) coming very soon and also a full length entitled FaceDown In The Dirt both coming this year

Thanks to R/N/Z Magazine 
http://rnzmagazine.com/2011/06/5-questions-with-husky-burnette/

"Since I took this Cigar City resonator cbg home with me it's the main thing I've been picking on so far, above my 3 favorite guitars. Now I have a 4th!! Jim Mitchell's builds are seriously top notch - tone, easy playing, sturdy pieces of work - and the prices are half of what you could get other cbg's of this quality for! Seriously do yourself a favor and order a custom box!"
-Husky Burnette

Husky is clearly one of the hardest working journeyman blues Guitar-slingers working today. He is just back from his "Place to stay" tour and already back out for several dates across the south. I had a chance to meet up with him in Orlando last week and hear him put several of my guitars through their paces. Husky is the real deal! Do yourself a big favor and see one of his shows. BY JIM MITCHELL

Hey, it's a white dude playing the blues! Through a phalanx of distortion! He used to have a female drummer (the delightfully named Flannery O'Goner)! He kinda-sorta lives in Tennessee! He does not own a recording studio, a record store-cum-personal shrine, nor does he play in any band that features a dude from Queens of the Stone Age. He does, however, put on a pretty damn good Delta Blues-meets-Jimmy Page-circa-“In My Time of Dying" raw duo show. Ostensibly (far as I can figure) named for Ferlin Husky and Smiley Burnette, Husky's blues aren't the sparks-a-flyin’ fretboard workouts that Mssr. White so ably conducts, but rather a seated, Son House-inspired blend of noise and nuance, his man Burma keeping time like a metronome with low battery charge. Who knows whether or not its the real deal (what's one to do, ask him if he has the blues?), but Burnette's achingly slow-burn guitar work seems to be in the right place—which is more than most of your Alligator Records crowd can say. 
Sat., Dec. 19, 2009