This week’s artist was part of a two for one special brought to my attention by Acoustic Tuesday viewer Ted Renshaw from Southhold, NY. Ted brought up Darrel Scott and then it reminded me of an artist that is connected to Darrel.
His guitar work is simply beautiful, and his songs tell stories in an elegantly literal manner. The way in which he paints detailed pictures of seemingly simple landscapes is an art of which he is very much a master. Not to mention his voice, which fits the songs like a glove.
Ben Bullington was a prolific songwriter from here in Montana and his work is as real as real gets. Ben was a doctor and in his off time he wrote songs; he was obsessed with words and song… this is very apparent on the choices that he would make for song lyrics. Listening to a Ben Bullington song is like hopping in a time machine that takes you to the exact time and place the is song is about.
Ben was a guitar geek through and through as he had a knack for finding vintage instruments in great disrepair and then gathering the right “team” together to bring them back to life. I witnessed Ben do this multiple times and it was like he had a guitar geek sixth sense.
Ben passed away in November of 2013 and left behind a legacy of songs. Songs that have been recognized by some of the top songwriters in music, namely Rodney Crowell and even Darrell Scott, who later chose ten of Ben’s songs to record and release as a tribute to Ben and his songwriting prowess.
Ben is certainly one of those songwriter that flies way under the radar, but absolutely should not as he had that magic and his catalog of songs are evidence of that.
Ben Bullington Links
