Beloved Texas Musician and Songwriter Brian Burns Has Died
Texas music songwriter, musician, educator, and historian Brian Burns has passed away. Though you might not recall the name, many of your favorite musicians from Texas most certainly do and did, and saw Brian Burns as a close friend and musical peer. As a performer and musician for over 40 years, he left his footprint on Texas music, and made sure the legacy of Texas music was preserved and paid forward.
Brian Burns was originally from Waco where he received a guitar and drum kit at an early age. Though he would go on to be best known as a singer and a songwriter, it was as a drummer where he got his start in music. He auditioned for a band out of Temple, TX eventually called Freewheelin’ in 1979 when he was just 16, and was hired as the drummer. The band would travel all around the United States playing live shows specializing in country music from Texas. Even early on, Brian Burns traveled with a record player and vinyl collection, exposing his fellow band mates to the music of Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Jerry Jeff Walker, and other Texas music mainstays.
When the wheels finally fell off of Freewheelin’, Brian Burns went on to front and participate in numerous other Texas country bands that would play the local dance halls around home, and tour nationally when they could. Burns also played in the house bands of Willie Nelson’s 4th of July Picnic and Farm Aid presentations in the ’80s. This is also when he started writing songs for others, and by the early ’90s, had transitioned more to a troubadour-style performer, performing acoustic solo or with a small band.
Nearly 20 years into his career, Brian Burns released his debut album called Highways, Heartaches, & Honky-Tonks in 1997, and it put him on the map as a solo performer. He followed this up with 1999’s Angels & Outlaws. It’s opening song “Welcome To Texas (Now Don’t Forget To Go Back Home)” became a regional hit, and one of Brian’s signature songs. He’d do himself even one better with his 2001 album The Eagle & The Snake: Songs Of The Texians. Steeped in Texas lore with long story songs, it was crowned by another song that would become synonymous with Brian Burns and Texas, “I’ve Been Everywhere (In Texas)”—a Texas take on the country standard.
“I’ve Been Everywhere (In Texas)” would go on to be featured in the soundtrack of the 2002 motion picture Grand Champion starring George Strait, and featuring other country stars along with Bruce Willis and Julia Roberts. The kids-based family film helped Brian Burns transition into the next pursuit of his career, which was an educational concert presentation called Once Upon A Time In Texas. Through the program, Burns taught elementary and middle school students about Texas history in a musical format.
Subsequently, Brian Burns released further records Heavy Weather (2004), Border Radio (2006), and American Junkyard (2009), resulting in numerous regional radio hits in Texas. But as time went on, Brian Burns found it harder and harder to keep up with the changing trends in music, both soncially and technologically with streaming. So in 2017, he retired from music to focus more on graphic design, photography, and website production.
As an example of how revered Brian Burns was by his fellow Texas songwriters, Guy Clark sang “Like a Coat from the Cold” at his wedding to his wife Veronica, according to his former Freewheelin’ band mate Ronnie Brandt. It was Veronica who posted on July 6th,
“On July 4, 2026 I lost my husband, confidant, best friend, and the sweetest boy ever. Brian was Dad to Ryan, Jessica, and Amanda. He was Papa to Cooper, Eleanor, Carter, and Olivia. Brian was intelligent, a constant searcher of knowledge, creative, talented, funny, quick witted, complicated and I loved it all. I am devastated and right now I can not imagine being on this life journey without him. It would have been 30 years of marriage this November. As Brian has said many times when someone he admired, cared about, or loved left this earth – Godspeed. Brian, I hope you have found peace, my love.”
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July 8, 2026 @ 8:47 am
Seems like it must have been a little out of the blue. He wasnt that old but i guess that doesnt matter. I had no previous knowledge of him but seemed alright. May he rest in peace.
July 8, 2026 @ 6:37 pm
Seems to be some discrepancy about Brian Burns’ age. Trig, above wrote that he was 16 in 1979, which would make him about 63 now, when he died. I looked him up on Google about two hours ago, [you have to add “singer” or you get the current New York Giants All-Pro linebacker Brian Burns, who’s 28], and it said he was born in 1957, which would make him about ’69. I decided to recheck myself before posting this and Google AI now says:
“Texas singer-songwriter Brian Burns died on July 4, 2026, at the age of 84. He was born in Monahans, Texas, on November 6, 1941.Over his 40-year career, he released 13 studio albums and wrote classic western story songs. He retired from the music industry in 2017 to focus on graphic design and photography.”
Go figure. I hope the current posting is the correct one.
Maybe, by tomorrow, he’ll be as old as Willie.
July 8, 2026 @ 7:07 pm
Fuck Google AI.
My sources for the dates and ages are Brian Burns himself from his website,
https://www.brianburnsmusic.com/about.php
and his close friend Ronnie Brandt, who posted about his death on Facebook and said, “At the end of 1979 Brian Burns is just 16, I just turned 18.”
https://www.facebook.com/ronnie.brandt
I didn’t publish Brian’s age at death or his birthdate because I didn’t have that information confirmed, and I still don’t.
July 9, 2026 @ 4:49 am
We grew up together he was a year older than me and would make him 63
July 13, 2026 @ 11:07 am
I am his sister Kay….63 is correct
July 13, 2026 @ 12:46 pm
Sorry folks….guess I had a typo. My talented and sweet brother was 67
July 8, 2026 @ 9:40 am
One of his best songs was Rattlesnake Tequila.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=eNgGmrzu36Q&list=RDeNgGmrzu36Q&start_radio=1&pp=ygUfYnJpYW4gYnVybnMgcmF0dGxlc25ha2UgdGVxdWlsYaAHAQ%3D%3D&ra=m
RIP to a great singer!
July 8, 2026 @ 10:46 am
What a splendid song.
July 8, 2026 @ 6:50 pm
@TXB–Great song. Reminds me of another Texas-born singer, Robert Earl Keen. REK’s recording careere seems to have gotten started and picked up steam before Brian Burns’, but I don’t know if Burns was singing those songs in Texas years before he got his record deal. BB’s “Rattlesnake Tequilla” reminds me of REK’s “Shades of Gray.” The subject matters are completley different, but the way the stories unfold and move forward and get crazier, but hold together, is similar. I’d be interested to know if they traveled in the same circles or influenced each other.
July 8, 2026 @ 10:09 am
I loved Mr. Burns music, my favorites were his last 3, kicked myself when he retired and I had not seen him live. My sympathy to his wife and children.
July 8, 2026 @ 11:06 am
Saw him sing at 2 different venues through the years an met him on the second one.Very nice gentleman and as talented as they come. This is quite shocking to hear and my condolences to his family😞
July 8, 2026 @ 1:05 pm
Thunderstorms and Tyler Roses was one of my most played tracks on my old iPod.
July 8, 2026 @ 1:08 pm
A great singer/songwriter. I use to visit with him and have been known to do a few songs with him at The White Elephant in the Ft. Worth Stockyards. RIP
July 8, 2026 @ 1:09 pm
I’ve also been a long time fan of him and his music. My favorites (of many) are “Thunderstorms and Tyler Roses” – a sad song and “The Haunted Jukebox (At The Lost Highway Saloon”. If you don’t know his music, start with these two. He also wrote a song called “Ghosts of The Baker Hotel” which unfortunately never made it to an album.
July 8, 2026 @ 1:15 pm
When Brian released “The Eagle & The Snake: Songs Of The Texians”, we bought about 10 CD’s to give to family and friends. We sent a couple of them to Iraq in care packages for the soldiers. It’s a good one. All of his are. Our condolences to his family from three generations of fans. He was a Texas treasure.
July 8, 2026 @ 4:57 pm
Man I hated to hear this. I always really appreciated his music, especially the historical songs. Heavy Weather is a great album. RIP..
July 8, 2026 @ 8:08 pm
This could be a repeat…is Brian Burns not on Spotify?
July 8, 2026 @ 8:09 pm
Very limited stuff on streaming platforms. The best place to look is YouTube.
July 9, 2026 @ 8:25 am
Sad that I couldn’t find much of his music (3-4 songs, no albums) on Spotify. I hope his family corrects this so his songs can still live.
July 11, 2026 @ 11:22 am
One of his coolest songs wasn’t exactly country or Texan. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was an extended version of a Gordon Lightfoot song from the 70’s. The song lasts about eight and a half minutes. At the end of the song Brian does a tribute to each crew member,twenty nine in all. A very powerful song.
July 11, 2026 @ 8:24 pm
“But as time went on, Brian Burns found it harder and harder to keep up with the changing trends in music, both soncially and technologically with streaming.”
100% false. Burns had his frustrations with the changing music industry, same as countless others. But keeping up was never the problem. Significant vocal cord issues were the real problem. Similar to the challenges Johnny Bush faced. And you’d recognize that if you’d ever listened to the ‘Angels and Outlaws’ and ‘American Junkyard’ albums, even if you weren’t close enough to the man to know the details.
Fuck you, Kyle.
July 11, 2026 @ 9:11 pm
Dave,
I appreciate you coming here to leave further context on why Brian Burns left the music industry.
Your classless, unnecessary, and embarrassing expletive is in no way insulting to me, but is absolutely insulting to Brian Burns and his family. This is an obituary. If you have some personal beef with me, keep it to another medium that his family might not see. Otherwise it is beyond disrespectful, and frankly reeks of spite and anger that I even took of my time to try and make sure Brian Burns was memorialized, and you have decided to take offense at it. You would have preferred I not honor him at all due to some unusual personal beef.
For the record, where the assertion you pulled from the obituary came from was Brian Burns himself, along with reading the accounts of numerous of his close friends. As it says on his own website on the “About” page:
https://www.brianburnsmusic.com/about.php
“American Junkyard was prophetic in that it called attention not only to a distinct change in how Americans consumed artistic media such as music, but a profound shift in popular musical styles and artistry. In retrospect, music had gone from being an active facet of American life to a passive one.
Brian retired from the music business in 2017 to run a multimedia company providing web design, software development, graphic & typographic design, HDR & aerial photography, and A/V production.
There was nothing about a vocal cord injury, though I would not doubt your knowledge on that. The proper way to address this would have been to leave a comment here without the expletive, or maybe send me an email. I always want to get it right, and I always want to be respectful when writing about deceased individuals.
I would really encourage your to question and challenge what made you decided to attack me with such hatred in your comment on an obituary, and work to resolve that anger. I’m not perfect by any stretch and have never claimed to be. But you were completely out of line here.
July 12, 2026 @ 8:08 am
Spent many of Sunday afternoon listening to him at the White Elephant even bought many Tyler roses 45s .got most of his cds. Last time I seen him live was at Boo rays in Weatherford we had a blast he played all my favorites. Many thanks. Thoughts and prayers for the family. He will be on the Haunted Jukebox.