Ben Burgess

One Liner: Tough guy who has written some hit songs for others finally doing his own outlaw-ish thing.

Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but shockingly, Country!

Home: Nashville (but originally from Dallas!)

Poster Position: Small Type 
Saturday.

Thoughts:  I had an initial thought when I looked at this lineup, that while they have nailed it on the 90's country cheeseballs from Nashville, and two of the biggest new guys who trade in the good-songwriting-almost-Outlaw thing, but they were missing out on a lot of the Texas country types who they could have used to beef up the roster.  When I pulled up this guy's Spotify, I figured that he was going to fill that role.  He looks like Outlaw Country, and kind of sounds like it too.  But not quite.  His most popular song has some cheese in the lyrics, and his fifth most popular ("Kill a Man") is sounding like Post Malone trying to do country.

His second-most streamed song steals its tune from Radiohead.  I could hear at about a minute in when the guitar and drums kick in - he absolutely bit the tune from "Optomistic."  Here it for yourself:

I'm sure Radiohead will never hear that song or care a whit about it, but that is blatant.  He seems angry.

Searching Wikipedia for him brings up an English-born Irish retired footballer best known for his time with Hull City and Blackpool.  I wish American soccer teams had cool ass names like that.  Austin FC and Real Salt Lake are jenky ass names.  Austin should be Waterloo and Salt Lake should be Tabernacle.  But I digress, that is not this guy.

Instead, this is a Dallas guy who now lives in Nashville, who just recently released his debut album, Tears the Size of Texas.  Prior to the release of his album, he had been writing for others, including the 2020 BMI Song of the Year winner, "Whiskey Glasses," sung by Morgan Wallen, and "Heartbreak," a Diplo track.  He grew up in East Dallas in a tough area, the son of a guitarist and a disc jockey.  He went to Booker T for high school, the alma mater for Erykah Badu, Edie Brickell, and Norah Jones.  In his 20's he lived in Austin and played bars and clubs, trying to make it work.  He ended up in L.A. and got a song on the Jonas Brothers' Disney film soundtrack, but then finally headed for Nashville in 2015 to find a more collaborative environment.

His top song is the title track of the new album - "Tears the Size of Texas" - with 573k streams.

Did he just sing that he's just got "my guitars, my horses, and God?"  This feels like he wrote it hoping to get it picked up for use in Yellowstone.  Super mean to have jilted that girl.  But also weird that she wasn't crying tears at all as he was singing that she would be crying really freaking big tears.  I also wish that he would stop doing rap moves with his hands - the finger pistols are throwing me off.  Spoiler alert: I really like that she murdered him though!  And, to be honest, it's a catchy song with a solid chorus.

I don't love all of it - "Kill a Man" really messed up my vibe while listening to the album - but most of it is solid.