(Americanoir / Folk) “Gruff but well-read, quiet but dancing circles on one heel in the kitchen, de la Cour is the enigma, the lone picker, the troubadour, the drifter, the one man band.” — The American Music Project
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, bartender, and agricultural worker. He lived in Havana, Paris, London, Los Angeles, and New Orleans before finally settling in Nashville, and it was at Nashville’s Greenland Sound that de la Cour recorded the eleven songs of perfectly crafted Americanoir that make up his second album “Midnight in Havana”.
“Ben de la Cour’s songs are brimming with urgent authenticity. There is thematic hardness and vulnerability throughout, but what distinguishes de la Cour’s songs from lesser guitar-and-anguished-vocals hacks is the raw humanity of his delivery and the potency of his way with words.” — No Depression
Influenced by giants such as Townes Van Zandt and Warren Zevon as much as by bands
like Slayer, Nick Cave and The Gun Club, Ben de la Cour has somehow managed to meld all of these influences naturally into his Americanoir canon, delivering a uniquely modern, haunting and darkly humorous sound that is all his own. Songs filled with tales of substance abuse, murder and mental illness sit in perfect juxtaposition with playful lightheartedness and an ever-present glimmer of hope. However, upon closer inspection, darkness almost always wins…an unlikely hero, but one that suits de la Cour.
In May of 2016, de la Cour was selected as one of six winners of the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival “New Folk” competition.