Album by Scott Ballew

10 tracks |35:18 run time

Released 11/09/2022

Available on: Digital, Streaming, CD, and Cassette

Leisure Rodeo is the new album from Scott Ballew, following up 2021’s surprise debut Talking to Mountains. Born in Austin in the early 80’s Ballew eventually drifted out west to California, where he made a name for himself as a film director. At the age of 30 he ended up back in Austin, got sober, picked up the guitar and started writing songs. Most of those songs ended up on Ballew’s debut, but he kept writing and refining his craft, eventually ending up with ten tracks for a follow up album.

Picking up where he left off, Leisure Rodeo features world-weary vignettes in the vein of Townes Van Zandt and Jerry Jeff Walker set to rustic country-folk arrangements. Frequent collaborators Jesse Woods, Shane Renfro (RF Shannon), Jesse Siebenberg, and Todd Hannigan are back, joined by special guest appearances from Ryan Bingham on “Border Kid” and Erika Wennerstrom (The Heartless Bastards) on “Convenience Store World”.

When asked about the meaning of the album title Ballew had this to say, “Life is fucked up and you have to take it in stride and roll with the punches. That's what these songs are about. Leisure Rodeo nods to the fact that you can't control how the world treats you, you can only control how you react to the world.”