Doug McCarty and Billy Don	Doug McCarty was one of my oldest and best friends. Sadly he has passed on. Doug; I miss you buddy. Our Daddy's were good friends. They were Timber Men. Doug and me were always telling people that we were timber men, I suppose because we grew up in it and learned it from our fathers. I have forty acres in Stone County, Arkansas where I was born. Doug began building me a house and it is now done. It’s way back in the woods. At night I sit out on the bluff & listen to the wildlife. You can't hear any cars or sirens at all. I love the silence, insects and wildlife.	Doug framing the house
B.D. bottle raised this racoon & named it Outlaw Bud Reneau, Billy Don, and Dobie Gray at Hal and Rebecca's Wedding Reception B.D. & Leonard of the Country Resurection Project	When I was a kid I couldn't wait to get out of there and see places like California and New York. Lights, cities and oceans are things that I just had to see! After being on the road for the better part of 25 years crossing this country and Canada more times than I can remember. Traveling to Europe and Asia and some other far away places. I have seen just about all I care to. It feels so good and right to be back home. I'm sure that I've been on close to a thousand airplanes. I still board a few but nothing like I use to. I am living in the Ozark Mountains again and I love it. I hope when the Good Lord pulls up my number that I'll be on that mountain. I named it Burns Bluff in honor of my dad, Junior Jackson Burns. I have met some great friends over the years from all over the country and all over the world. Doug was a true best friend to me. Him and my dad are the only two who would come other places and hear me play. Dad died in 1978. Over the years Doug has come to Nashville many times. He has come to see me as far away as Hawaii.
	To everyone out there reading this - watch and listen for my old friend, Hal Bynum. Hal has a new album produced by Jim Ed Norman on Warner Bros. Records. It is one of the greatest pieces of work that I have heard. I met Hal in 1973. I was fairly new in Nashville. We were hanging out in this little building that elonged to Mary John Wilkins. It was the tape room for her publishing company Buckhorn Music. Hal had been in Nashville for a few years. He had some things recorded by Jim Reeves, Ray Price, George Jones and others. Hal didn't score the really big one until about 1976 or '77. He had been working on a song for a couple of years called Lucille. He got a little help from Roger Bowling. Kenny Rogers got hold of the song and for a while it was the biggest record on the planet! I have been through many things with Hal over the years. He has been a real friend when I needed one. We have worked together as well as written a couple of songs together over the years. Back when I met Hal in '73 he had a new baby boy named Christopher. Chris has now graduated from college out in Denver! Chris is a super person and is also one of my dearest friends. Hal is married to a lovely lady named Rebecca. Pop singer Dobie Gray, Bud Reneau and myself were in Hal and Rebecca’s wedding. His new album will touch you. Be sure and check out Meeting In Reno. Good luck Hal you are the greatest.
Billy Don & Karen Brooks My Road Warrior Sister... What a talent!	Mack, BD & Karen	Billy Don & Mack Vickery High top of Burns' Bluff "Great Talent...Great Friend!"..Mack Vickery
These are two of my good friends. I have traveled many miles with Mack. We have written several songs together. Mack has written many hit songs. "The Fireman" by George Strait is probably his biggest. He also wrote "The Only Hell Mama Ever Raised" by Johnny Paycheck, "Jamestown Ferry" by Tanya Tucker and many of Jerry Lee Lewis' songs such as "Rocking My Life Away." Karen wrote "I Could Never Do Nothing Right" a hit for Roseanne Cash. She has also won a Grammy. Karen and I have even co-wrote a song called "Talk About Crazy!" In this other pic shown here, we're playing with our guns on Burns Bluff. I'm wearing my coat with the great Confederate flag caped on my back. This is the great flag of my southern heritage. It will fly at Burns Bluff as long as I am alive.
Billy Don and Mack Vickery  "Tired and Troubled Soldiers"