The Makers: Singer/Songwriter/Rancher Josh Burnett

Tell us about yourself.

I grew up in East Texas. Royce City is what I call home and rode bulls out there through high school and part of college and then became an Ag science teacher for 10 years and now I'm a rancher and singer/songwriter. We raise cattle here just outside of Childress in a little town called Carey. I also write music and have a band called the Josh Burnett Band

I've got three kids and have been married almost 17 years.

How long have you been involved in music?

Yeah I got started in music in my first year at Texas Tech, I taught myself how to play guitar. And I've always wanted to write music because that's my therapy. So I started to write music, taught myself how to play the guitar and since then I've written 20 to 25 songs. I also taught myself how to play keyboard as well.

Many people are happy just playing music. Why did you want to write?

It was a self-expression for me. It's how I express myself and it’s how I get my thoughts on paper and share them with others. I started with cowboy poetry and then once I taught myself how to play guitar, I moved on to songwriting. I grew up a little rough and have a story behind everything.

So all my songs are based on pretty much

things that I've gone through in my life and it really relates to people.

What is your niche?

The way I base my songwriting revolves around the things I've been through. As a teacher I saw a lot of kids that went through the same things I did when I was a kid. I take those feelings and those emotions and I write songs about it.

When I write a song that's a very emotional song, many people contact me and say, …”hey that's exactly how I feel. I just didn't know how to say it or I can relate to that.”

I've got songs about domestic abuse. I've got songs about special needs. I have a daughter with Downs syndrome. So that's dear to my heart there. I've got a song called, "I Back the Blue" which brings awareness to police officers. And you know the importance of backing our heroes that put their lives on the line everyday. You know I try to write with emotion and things that I feel. And it just tends to relate to people. So some of my songs sounds a little Western Swing-ish, others sound a little country and then some are just flat rock and roll.

How does your day to day job relate to your music? Being a person of the land and being someone who lives in a rural area. Does that play any kind of influence on the kind of music and your sensibilities that you put into your music?

I write a lot of music about being an underdog or an underdog situation. We get up every day and we do drive tractors and work cattle and we know what hard

work is about and that's what I tend to put into my songs. I'm for the common man that knows what it's like to be broke and to have to work for what you have in life. And on the same side respecting what you have in life and not taking it for granted. I try to put that into my songs and I try to really reflect my music towards the working man or the underdog when I write.

You've gotten a little bit of traction with the song I Back the Blue. Tell me how that came about and tell the people that haven't heard it what the story was behind the song.

The story behind I Back the Blue started Thanksgiving of last year. I came in from eating dinner with my family. And I clicked on the news to find out that state trooper Damon Allen was killed on Thanksgiving. He was killed by a man that should have been put away. The judge had released him and he got out and killed an officer. He left behind a wife and kids and you know on Thanksgiving.

I just sat down and I said, "Man this just isn't right. All these officers are passing away and it seems like every day and nobody's backing them. I said that I just feel like I need to write a song about it and that's how I Back the Blue came about.

My main goal with the song was to show a different side of the the police officers lives. That these people are real people. They're real people with real families and just like me and you. I want to bring awareness to what police officers are and what they do and the respect level that they deserve.

Where can people learn more about what you do?

I have Facebook, my personal page Josh Burnett. I've got Josh Burnett Band. One song, "I Back the Blue" is on iTunes, Spotify, and Google Play. In the next few weeks, I should have two or three more songs out for digital downloads as well.