Who Is Ben Burgess? The Story Behind His Journey to Country Music

As always, we love to share rising stars in the industry with our followers; however, today you may recognize this gifted individual already. Ben Burgess started his career as a songwriter, but now he is ready to step into the spotlight as an artist and we have a feeling it’s another move in the right direction for the talented entertainer.

An East Dallas native, music was always Burgess’ path. “My dad was a guitar-playing, songwriting, fireman. I was raised in a firehouse around titans, heroes, and characters larger than life and that shaped the man I am and the kind of songs I write, and how serious I am about writing songs,” began the singer. “My mother was a hippie, still is, and a DJ, when she went to school in Oklahoma, so I grew up around a lot of different music, and I feel like you can hear it in a lot of these songs.”

Burgess credits his family and his Dallas upbringing for his love for music. “The fact that I grew up in the city has really influenced my songwriting and given it to some depth to where I’m not really singing about lifestyle songs, but more about life songs,” shared the singer. Burgess mentions a love for Frank Zappa, Frank Sinatra and James Taylor; however, it was Willie Nelson who helped him find a love for country music.

“It was Willie Nelson and it was the Stardust album, [my parents] had the record and they played it all the time, and the cool thing about that album was that he covered other songs, so he was doing like Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, all different kinds of music,” shared Burgess. “It really comes down to the guitar and the man or woman and the songs and I feel like country is the perfect genre to do that. And I’m really honored to be in it.”

The Turning Point:

Burgess continued his path toward country music, after a stint in Los Angeles, writing pop music. “I feel like country is kind of a grown-folk thing. We’re talking about heartbreak and there are all kinds of sad stories, and there’s a lot of honesty. […] It’s important for people to connect with each other and realize we ain’t that different at all,” shared the singer.

In 2014, Burgess made the move to Nashville, landing himself a publishing deal shortly after that. “It was blood, sweat, and tears the size of Texas on this journey […] I like to tell people when one door closes, a window opens, you just have to figure out which one it is, even if it ain’t open, find a rock and get in. […] For some reason, I never gave up.” Adding later, “I’m hoping I can inspire the next generation of songwriters, country superstars like Morgan and Ernest, Tyler Rich to keep going.”

As a songwriter, Burgess has written songs for artists like Morgan Wallen, Florida Georgia Line, and The Cadillac Three. After finding success as a songwriter with a lot of Big Loud Records’ artists, it was no surprise that the singer would make his artist debut as a Big Loud recording artist.

Today:

Burgess made his artist debut with his brand new record Tears the Size of Texas. “We tried to get as many honest songs as we could for this album,” began the rising artist. “The process with me and Joey Moi, the producer, was really us going back and forth for months listening to the songs and going, ‘What’s the message? What’s the honesty here?’ And also trying to find a common theme that we can balance from.”

Burgess’ ten-song project has everything any country music lover could want. “I think we really found a good balance of some grit, some truth, and some badassness, and some sensitiveness. There’s some introspective on there and I think there’s a strength in being able to take a loss, and strength in talking about it and singing about it.” Some standouts on the record include the introspective solo write about grief, “Ain’t Got No Phone,” “Jackson,” and “Kill A Man.”

Thankfully this is just the beginning for Burgess. He plans to continue to release more and more music, as long as Big Loud will let him. As a songwriter, he has music for days, so it’s only a matter of time until he expands his already impressive artist catalog.

If you are dying to catch Burgess live, he is heading back out with Koe Wetzel (and Jelly Roll) next month. New York fans can catch him later this week, October 27th with Warren Zeiders. We anticipate hearing him jump on a major tour next year too! For tickets and more tour information, check-out his website here.

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