Influenced by the works of Kris Kristofferson, Jim Croce and Roger Miller, Donnie Blanz began his career as a singer/songwriter in the early 1970’s. As a member of the Florida based country-rock band Justin, Donnie developed his own songwriting skills and began to prepare himself for a move to Nashville. In 1986 Donnie was offered a staff-writing position with a music row publishing company owned by legendary singer/songwriter Ed Bruce. Donnie’s song, “You Just Can’t See Him From The Road,” was recorded by the late Chris LeDoux and sold over one million copies. Donnie continues to write and perform his original, Western Americana music for corporate events, combining his music with keynote speaking services and team-building programs. While in Nashville, Donnie began narrating western audio books for Creative License, LLC which led to his work on camera, appearing in a number of national commercials. Donnie also appeared in the Brad Paisley, CMA and ACM award nominated music video, “He Didn’t Have To Be.” The Watkins College of Art, Design & Film soon put him to work on a number of student and independent films, which led to his work with Summit Learning Systems, appearing in their series of industrial training films. Upon moving to Texas in 2001, Donnie began doing VO work for Six Flags Over Texas, Amegy Bank and Nintendo Video Games. He continues to narrate and play character parts for Creative License, LLC, through the magic of digital, home recording. In 2005 Donnie appeared in the Richard Linklater, HBO pilot film, “5.15 an hr,” working opposite America Ferrera. In 2006 Donnie produced a series of 12 music videos of his own original songs for BlueHighways-TV/RFD-TV. The segments ran during the fall programming within Stan Hitchcock’s, Heart to Heart Classics shows. In March of 2007, Donnie was cast by director David Jetre as Sloan, the evil gunslinger and leader of the Gray Riders in Jetre’s HD feature film, “Shroud.”
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