If you were a country fan in the 2010s, the name Franke Ballard is sure to ring a bell. The Sunshine & Whiskey singer experienced some major radio success following the release of his debut album, also titled Sunshine & Whiskey back in 2014.
All three of the singles present on the record, the title track, Helluva Life and Young & Crazy, all went #1 on Billboard’s US Country Airplay chart.
With a hot start to a career that shockingly netted Ballard more #1s than Kip Moore, one would think that he would have a discography that spanned multiple albums by now. However, that’s simply not the case.
After the success of Sunshine & Whiskey, Ballard followed it up in 2016 with El Rio. The album spawned three singles, It All Started with a Beer, Cigarette (a Kip Moore and Chris Stapleton co-write) and You’ll Accomp’ny Me. All three singles had menial success, with It All Started with a Beer being the most successful, peaking at 15 on Billboard’s US Country Airplay chart.
Though El Rio seemed like a bit of a setback with only 13,300 units being sold compared to Sunshine & Whiskey‘s 105,000, it didn’t seem like a complete career derailer for Ballard. Hell, it contained a Top 20 hit.
However, Ballard has been radio silent in terms of new releases over the past seven years, no single, no EP, nothing. The question that remains is, “Why?”
One highly speculative reason would be a dispute with Warner Records, a label that he is still technically signed to.
In an interview with Rolling Stone in 2016 before the release of El Rio, Ballard expressed his frustration with Nashville, “I’ve done a lot of recording in Nashville and other places, but I really wanted to get out and away and try to focus and eliminate some distractions that come from recording in Nashville…just in an effort to make the music better.”
Quotes like this and “I’ve done a lot of recording in Nashville and I get easily distracted. I’m in there and we’re doing our thing, and somebody stops by like ‘How’s it going? Can I bring you guys some sandwiches?’ It’s like ‘No, you’re breaking up our mojo.” point to a built-up frustration with the Nashville album-making process that comes with being on a major label such as Warner.
Again, this is all speculation, but quotes like these point to a general distaste for the way albums are created in Nashville. There’s a very good chance that Ballard simply didn’t want to pursue making music in a process he didn’t enjoy.
That being said, with the rise of independent country, it’s surprising that Ballard hasn’t tried his luck releasing music independently. Given the success of many independent acts over the past few years, Ballard could easily regain his audience under an independent label that will allow him to create music the way that he wants to.
Another reason for Ballard’s departure very well could have been building a family. Shortly after the release of El Rio, he got married to Christina Murphy in March 2017. The couple welcomed their first child, Pepper Lynn, on Feb. 8, 2020. While, of course, many popular acts today have children, Ballard may have wanted to focus on being a father rather than a full-time musician. This is all speculation, however.
Recently, Ballard has joined Marble Jets, a rock band formed in July 2023. They have a four-song, self-titled EP available for streaming right now. Though Ballard is not present on the vocals, he’s lending his guitar on the impressive guitar-heavy EP.
The interesting thing about Ballard’s absence in the studio is his continued touring presence. Though he hasn’t been going on massive runs, he still has been doing shows with the Marble Jets as well as a solo act fairly consistently.
In conclusion, there’s no definitive reason why Frankie Ballard simply stopped releasing new music in the country genre given that he’s never made a statement regarding his absence. It seems like general unhappiness with the Nashville record-making process and growing a family ultimately led to his departure from the genre.
If you’re dying for some new Frankie Ballard tunes, the YouTube channel, Juke Motion Pictures, put together a playlist of unreleased full songs and snippets that Ballard has played at concerts over the past few years. You can listen to them here.
Listen to Ballard’s Sunshine & Whiskey and Marble Jet’s Empire of Love here: