Ben Howard

Lovely acoustic, folksy harmonies.  We are up there on the 6th line of the poster, this is the 18th top performer on the poster, so he must be significantly larger than I thought.  Before the last two days, this guy had vexed me, as people I respect have told me that they love him, and it is damn pretty stuff, but I can't say it has ever stuck with me after I have tried it out in the past.  However, after concerted effort and repeat listening, I'll say that his music is enjoyable and less milquetoast than I recalled.

English guy, who apparently is a big surfer and moved to the "surf capital of the U.K." before dropping out of University to pursue his musical career.  He has jammed a number of festivals, and was here for ACL in 2012.  Two full albums, 2011's Every Kingdom and 2014's I Forget Where We Were.  Four of his top Five songs are from Every Kingdom, and even the songs from that album that don't make the top five are significantly more listened-to than his new album, which would seem to show that the new album wasn't as popular with the people.

His most listened-to song is only 4th place in terms of popularity on his Spotify page, but with over 50 million listens, its pretty damn popular.  "Keep Your Head Up," from Every Kingdom.

"Keep your head up!  Keep your heart strong!"  Nice song, nice sentiment, but the music and vocals remind me of David Gray or something similar played on adult alternative radio all day.  He's also got "Only Love" on this same album, which I think puts this guy into perspective for me.  He is kind of like a English surf-dude Bob Marley who wants to empower us to love one another and then just chill on the beach. That being said, I want to do that sweet homemade slip n' slide!  Hell yes!  Better to me, also from that same album, is "Old Pine," the most popular currently, but only with 37.9 million listens.

That song is a beaut.  For the newer album, the most popular track right now is the album opener, "Small Things," but "I Forget Where We Were" is the most listened-to, with 22.5 million jams.  Here is that title track to his most recent album:

Interesting video, and fine song.  I like it all well enough, I just can't imagine it being a huge festival show other than a mid-afternoon chill set to sit down and drink beer to.  Maybe I'll go check it out and be pleasantly surprised, or maybe I'll just have a pleasant time until the next show.