Album Notes

The mystery man of Texas country music, Mike Runnels, returns to keep it real on his fifth album of true C&W and rural Tex-Mex for the modern age, The Tender Years. Praised by Music New Nashville for his “good and solid honky-tonk songs” that recall “the days when country music was at its purest,” he offers up 10 gems recorded with such noted Austin scene players as Floyd Domino (piano), Herb Steiner (steel guitar), Lisa Pankratz (drums), Ron Flynt (guitar & bass), Andrew Nafziger (lead & baritone guitar) and Chip Dolan (accordion).

Two of the album’s songs, “Last Date” (his homage to Floyd Cramer) and “Just Say So Baby,” have already hit the Top 100 of the European Country Music radio chart on previous release as digital singles. Runnels has also recently enjoyed other exposure as his music appeared in a variety of mediums: Three tunes from his album Don’t Tell Candy in the movie Fuel starring C. Thomas Howell, Billy Maddox and Michael Esparza (just released on DVD), a song in a TV ad that has run in major U.S. markets, and another number on an Italian TV show. In 2006, his single “It’s Up To You” was a Top 20 hit on the European Country Music chart, spending 20 weeks on it alongside some of the top acts in American and Europe.