photos by Hank Austin
As STEVE AUSTIN, founder of long-running visionary metal outfit Today Is The Day, prepares to release Marked Cards And Loaded Dice – the debut LP from his classic outlaw country/bluegrass act – the newest preview of the record arrives through a video for “Crazy Dreams.”
Marked Cards And Loaded Dice was fully engineered, recorded, mixed, and mastered by AUSTIN, the songs recorded entirely on 1960s-1970s vintage analog gear – including Neve preamps, Neumann tube mics, and Abbey Road TG console equipment used on The Beatles and Pink Floyd – sounding as rich and real as the golden era of outlaw country. Rippin’ D-28 and D-18 guitar work drives intense rhythms and down-home solos. With STEVE AUSTIN handling guitar, bass, and vocals, and Colin Frecknall on drums, legendary pedal steel master Dana Flood (Hall Of Fame sideman for Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, and George Jones) and fiery fiddle virtuoso Ryu Bennett add soaring, emotional depth.
This is outlaw country the way it was meant to sound: real, raw, and unforgettable.
“Crazy Dreams” arrives with another video directed by STEVE AUSTIN’s son, Hank Austin.
AUSTIN reveals, “‘Crazy Dreams’ is one of my favorite songs. Hank Austin made a truly cinematic representation of my music and words to this song. I just love the ‘Crazy Dreams’ video so much. Hank had a sick location in mind, at Schoodic Pointe, Maine to shoot the video. The Atlantic Ocean slams giant waves into these super high jagged cliffs and rocks there. It was a challenge to get shots at different areas on the cliffs that we wanted to film. People die there every year by falling on the cliff onto the rocks that are soaked in slimy green algae. During the start of one of our shots at the edge of a cliff, Hank lost his footing and almost went off the cliff and down into the rocks. I saw the exact moment he slipped and grabbed him, right as he went down. Luckily just some cuts on his hands. It shook me up knowing we both could have slid off to our death. You gotta have a little danger in life, just to keep you real. In the end, being there and filming this song, was a very freeing and spiritual experience.”
Talking about the song, he writes, “‘Crazy Dreams’ is a long-lost diary about me, just getting started in this world as a young man. Doing what I could to survive, with a dream in my heart of making music. It’s a tribute to believing in yourself and your dreams even if the odds are against you with no promised rewards.”
Watch STEVE AUSTIN’s “Crazy Dreams” video now playing RIGHT HERE.
The “Henry” video is playing HERE and video for album opener “So Far Gone” is playing HERE.
Marked Cards And Loaded Dice drops worldwide on AUSTIN’s own SuperNova Records May 1st. Preorders are live at the label webshop HERE and Bandcamp HERE.
Tour dates, additional videos from the album, and more are to be expected shortly, with extensive touring throughout 2026 and 2027 being strategized.
STEVE AUSTIN is a rising force in traditional outlaw country music – an acclaimed songwriter, fiery guitarist, and magnetic performer whose journey from metal legend to heartfelt country storyteller has been nothing short of legendary. Born and raised on a horse farm in Lebanon, Tennessee, with deep family roots in the Appalachian hills of Chestnut Mound, he grew up surrounded by the raw sounds of Hank Williams Sr., Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, David Allan Coe, Townes Van Zandt, Johnny Cash, and Neil Young. He picked up the guitar at age ten and spent countless hours trading old-time country songs with his father, Tillman Austin – a honky-tonk musician whose words and melodies would later light the spark for Steve’s return to his first love.
For over three decades, AUSTIN has been a professional recording and touring artist. As singer and guitarist for the groundbreaking heavy metal band Today Is The Day since 1993, he’s released fourteen albums, played over a thousand shows worldwide, earned induction into the Decibel Hall Of Fame, and produced landmark records including Lamb Of God’s New American Gospel and Converge’s When Forever Comes Crashing. His 1999 album In the Eyes Of God featured members of Mastodon, and his life story is captured in the acclaimed documentary The Man Who Loves To Hurt Himself. He’s shared stages with Slayer, Lamb Of God, and Motörhead, and his work has been featured in Mix Magazine and multiple documentaries. Yet the pull of classic country never left. Inspired by his father’s songs, AUSTIN headed to the cold, icy winters of Orland, Maine (his current home) and poured three decades of life, loss, love, and hard-won hope into his debut full-length country album, Marked Cards And Loaded Dice.
STEVE AUSTIN’s live shows are pure electricity—honest, urgent, and dangerously alive. Blending tracks from Marked Cards And Loaded Dice with raw covers of Townes Van Zandt, Blaze Foley, David Allan Coe, and Bob Dylan, he delivers traditional country with a rocking edge that cuts straight to the soul. Fans leave feeling seen, heard, and part of something real. A true survivalist and outdoorsman who loves deer hunting, fishing, four-wheeling, and wrenching on trucks, STEVE AUSTIN brings the same no-compromise authenticity to the stage that he’s always lived by.
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