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Anyone reading about the implosion
of Sonny Burns career in the mid-50s -
when the East Texas honky-tonk singer sank from sight while his friend, label mate and
sometime duet partner George Jones rocketed to stardom - might be surprised to find
out that there was a ‘Second Coming’ in the 1960s. The story of Burns’ first flirtation
with fame, and his at least partly self-induced fall, is the stuff of country music legend
because it has been so closely linked with the rise of Jones, the most revered country
singer of the post-Hank Williams years. As good as he was, it’s arguable that Burns
would be regarded today as just another also-ran among many without the intertwining
with Jones at that crucial junction. Instead, the Jones connection lends Burns a special
aura, making his rise and fall one of the major ‘what-if?’ sagas of the era.
There is an undercurrent in the way Burns’ story is usually told that implies that the
singer somehow got a raw deal, that were it not for one fatal mistake it might have been
he who shot to stardom and not Jones. Andrew Brown, in his notes to ‘A Real Cool Cat’
Bear Family’s 2011 release documenting all of Burns’ early recordings for Starday (1954-
56, including many unissued tracks), decisively debunks the myths and romanticism
surrounding the singer’s failure to make it big, while at the same time giving Burns’ his
full due as one of the most talented performers of the time and place. It was less a raw
deal than a matter of timing and commitment.
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