Ben De La Cour

Nashville based singer-songwriter Ben de la Cour has lived a different kind of life. After growing up in Brooklyn, he set out to see the world as an amateur boxer, janitor, bartender, busker and agricultural worker living in Havana, Paris, Los Angeles, London and New Orleans. In between working a variety of odd jobs and touring the country several times over, de la Cour found the time to release three albums in the last three years, the latest of which is Ghost Light. Recorded in just over a week at Piety Street Studios in New Orleans, Ghost Light expands on Ben’s raw and rough-cut acoustic sound by venturing into bolder sonic territory with the help of Kieth Botello on drums and Steve Calandra (Morning 40 Federation) on upright bass; but despite the album’s more polished arrangements, there is still a quiet sense of raw vulnerability in its honest and tightly crafted lyrics. Ghost Light combines songs from his first two albums such as the subdued and forlorn “Down in Babylon,” acoustic rocker “Memorial Day,” and the somber reflection on artistic self-discovery and sacrifice in “I Went Down to Dido” with new songs such as the haunting “I Wanted Nothing” and the standout track “Howlin’ Down the Dark”, the tale of a lost soul traveling moonlit highways interwoven with delicate Spanish guitar. For many singer-songwriters, it’s hard for the audience to hear the link between the artist’s music and that of their influences, and harder still for the artist to live up to these comparisons. Ben de la Cour has managed to do so naturally and without an effort to emulate. It’s his ease with the pen and guitar that has Ben traveling down that same timeless path and abiding in the traditions of the free-spirited balladeer, and as a result Ben’s songs of life, leaving, and the fresh wounds and old scars of love provide a uniquely modern, haunting and sometimes darkly humorous take on a timeless genre.