In Dallas, Stalling started writing songs, recording albums, and developing his musical style. He drew inspiration from artists like Townes Van Zandt, Robert Earl Keen, and Guy Clark. Eventually, Stalling was performing with a full band to back him. His first band consisted of Jeff Howe on drums and percussion, Bryce Clarke on nylon-string guitar, electric guitar, and mandolin, and Jason Steinsultz on stand-up and electric bass as well as singing harmony. As soon as Stalling's music career started taking off, he quit his job with Frito-Lay and started pursuing music full-time. Stalling plays about 150 shows a year and is in the third year of a Budweiser sponsorship. He is a former member of the Board of Governors for the Texas Chapter of NARAS. He has also received a star on the in Corpus Christi, Texas. However there have been some changes to the band lineup as Heather Stalling now plays the fiddle and the harmony vocals, the drums are still run by Jeff Howe, guitar is now run by Glenn Wallace, and bass is also still run by Jason Steinsultz. Max and Heather Stalling were married in 2007 and Heather plays in both her first band, Blacktop Gypsy and in her husbands, The Max Stalling band. One of Stalling's most successful albums, Home to You, was released on August 17, 2010 on the Blind Nello Records label. It was produced by Grammy winner Lloyd Maines, and earned both a Best Album and a Best Male Vocal nomination for the 2011 LoneStarMusic Awards. The album's first single, "I Ain't Drinking Alone," was #14 on the Radio Free Texas 100 Most Requested Songs of 2010 list. Home to You followed four previous studio projects: Comfort In the Curves in 1999, Wide Afternoon in 2000, One of the Ways in 2002, and Topaz City in 2008. Stalling has also released two live albums: Sellout-Live at Dan's Silver Leaf in 2007 and Live From the Granada in 2009. Other albums include both Songs of Forbidden Love in 1998 and Genuine in 2003. Stalling's studio album, Banquet, was released in 2015 and includes original music as well as covers of Dough Sahm and The Beatles. His most recent album is Live at the Mucky Duck: Portmanteau which was released in 2019. Every album except forComfort in the Curves was released on Blind Nello Records, a label run by Max Stalling, Kevin Deal, and Mark Manders. Blind Nello currently has a distribution deal with Sony.
