Even though 8 Ball Aitken is just now releasing his first album in the states, the eight albums (and myriad videos) in his award-winning Australian catalogue offer further proof that you don't have to be American to deliver authentic Americana music. As his growing legions of non-Aussie fans also confirm, his bluesified, swampified, countrified southern rock feels right at home on stages in Texas (his newly adopted home), or Nashville, Ontario or Amsterdam. His self-titled new album perfectly conveys his propensity for making music with "a lot of attitude" - and fun. The former fruit-picker says, "One of my happiest achievements is having over a thousand people say to me, 'That's the most fun I've ever had at a gig.' To make people happy comes above everything else."