Essentials: The Top Ten Songs of Ben Bullington

Ben Bullington was a general medical practitioner in White Sulphur Springs, Montana (pop. 965), and then in Big Timber, MT (pop. c 1600), a doctor who wrote songs and played guitar for his family and friends in his spare time. Over the years he wrote dozens of songs, but it was not until 2007 that he (self) released his first album. And in the next six years he released just 4 more before his death.   

Now you may not think he can possibly qualify for this Feature with a total released output of 54 songs. Normally five albums would probably disqualify him, although another Feature we run, ‘More People Should Really Know About’  would probably fit the bill. However, the standard of his songs is so high that the regard in which he is held by other singer-songwriters more than justifies his inclusion – and furthermore it has proved incredibly difficult to pick a Top Ten of his songs.  If the name is not familiar, then his nearest iconic equivalent is probably Townes van Zandt, but he has been compared equally to Guy Clark and Steve Earle (early days), and Nebraska-era Springsteen, and his close friends and admirers included Rodney Crowell, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Will Kimbrough, JD Souther, Bill Payne and Darrell Scott. In 2011 he was diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer, so he gave up his medical practice and spent his remaining time singing and playing his music (and there are numerous YouTube videos attesting to the man’s brilliance).  From his first album “Two Lane Highway” (2007), through “White Sulphur Springs” in 2008, “Satisfaction Garage” (2010), “Lazy Moon” (2012) and the self-titled “Ben Bullington” in 2013, the year he died (aged 58), there is hardly a song that does not meet the highest standards achieved by van Zandt or Clark, predominantly folksy in style but with elements of country, roots, and blues.

He was probably closest in his later life to Darrell Scott (who he had met not that long before, camping in a national forest with their respective sons), who released a brilliant album of Bullington’s songs (“10”), with the exhortation  “you should slow down for 52 minutes, put this recording on and hear two friends make new friends”.  Scott said in the album notes. “I believe there is pure beauty here – these songs are perfect examples of ‘song as literature’”.  What led Bullington to this point was an early life brought up in Roanaoke Virgina, where he chanced upon country music after hearing Doc Watson on the radio, studying in Vanderbilt University because it was in Nashville, working oilfields across the Americas, before deciding on a career in medicine and a final relocation to Montana, where he lived, near his places of work, in Livingston.

If you have never heard (or heard of) Ben Bullington, just take about 4 hours out of your busy life and soak up the genius of this man who wrote songs about nature and the western skies in Montana, about life and love and women (though not in any kind of misogynist way), about politics both federal and local (his best known song is probably the dig at the commercialisation of country music – more later), about real and imagined people struggling with their lives, about the future and the past, and often about illness and death and dying (without being overly maudlin). Many of his songs show an element of humour too. On his five albums he used guest players sparingly but highly effectively – Will Kimbrough on electric and slide guitars and mandola, Fats Kaplin on pedal steel, violin, mandolin and accordion, George Bradfute (also a producer) on bass, cello and electric guitars, Bill Payne on piano, Rodney Crowell on guitar and vocals, John Lowell on guitar and resophonic and long-time close friend (and keeper of the flame) Joanne Gardner on backing vocals. All these artists served to frame Bullington’s songs, his warm, engaging, easy-going and occasionally gruff baritone and his melodic acoustic guitar playing.

Rodney Crowell said” Back in the early 70s we were all writing songs for the purest of reasons. And there was Townes van Zandt showing us what to do. Then along came Ben Bullington, reminding us of why we do this. That was the gift we were given”.

The songs are mostly on the slow side, but let that not turn you away from this wonderful artist. And to whet your appetite here are ten of the best (though to be honest you could pick any other ten and they would also be the best – these are the ones that currently happen to float my boat):

Number 10:  ‘I Despise Flies’ (from “Lazy Moon” 2012)

A relatable anxiety that many people experience and a great example of Bullington’s offbeat sometimes dark sense of humour in this rather creepy song:  “I washed the sheets this morning /  I had a nice clean bed / and I find one in his death throes / where I fixed to lay my head / their hairy legs their Paper Wings / their creepy compound eyes / I despise flies”. I picked this version as it was one of Bullington’s last performances (he died that year) and included his friends Rodney Crowell, Darrell Scott and Will Kimbrough.

Number 9:  ‘Here’s to Hopin’’ (from “Ben Bullington” 2013)

One of three tracks from Bullington’s last album (it could have been all of them) and this is a passionate hope for the future:  “If things come to Bear /  the Science World declares / have you thought for a minute / what that means / streams of refugees people dying in the streets  / can’t you see the desperate War torn scenes /  but here’s to hopin’ / here’s to hopin’ / here’s to hopin’”.  The slight feeling of despair is enhanced by Will Kimbrough’s ethereal slide guitar. Mary Chapin Carpenter provides backing vocals.

Number 8: ‘Thanksgiving 1985‘ (from “Two Lane Highway” 2007)

Bullington wrote songs about the Vietnam War (and its aftermath) and linked them often to anecdotes about everyday life. This track describes a teenage son talking to his father who was killed late on in the Vietnam War, but uses day to day stories of life with his stepfather to imagine what it might have been like if his father had lived: “You’d’ve carved the turkey / We’d’ve pulled the wishbone you and me / Instead of him and that stupid grin / “Honey don’t cook let’s go out again / Get in the car boy lets take a ride / Instant mashed potatoes Kentucky Fried” / A lot of things would have been different here /Thanksgiving 1985″  I picked Darrell Scott’s superb version of this song for the article, just to show how close he got to the spirit and sound of Ben Bullington in his tribute album.

Number 7: ‘Kanesville Down to Pray’  (from “Satisfaction Garage” 2010)

This is a song about the aftermath of the Vietnam War, told by one of two young soldiers who successfully navigated training and the war  to return to their idyllic home: “the shade (from a maple tree)’s a slice of paradise on a sunny summer’s day / it’s a straight road from Kanesville down to Pray”, only for one of them to dress up in uniform and shoot himself dead. This apparently simple song is up there with a number of moving songs about the Vietnam experience written by other artists.

Number 6:  ‘Sage After Rain’ (from “Lazy Moon” 2012)

A stunning song with exquisite backing by guitarist John Lowell, this describes a lost love and its sad aftermath. In the first verse: “He talked of a girl he’d known long ago / His eyes welled with tears when he’d try to explain / How the sound of her voice /  It made him feel whole / And the smell of her skin / Like sage after rain / Like sage after rain / Like sage after rain”.  And when the storyteller was asked to arrange his funeral, the death of this scoundrel had already been foretold in the first line: “he died with his boots on in another man’s bed”. Storytelling this good only happens with the very best writers – Bullington was one.

Number 5: ‘Country Music (I’m Talking to You)’ (from “Ben Bullington” 2013)

Bullington takes on the country music establishment for their approach to the music business generally but with a specific focus on the ‘Dixie Chicks’ moment: “It’s not about the claims you make / True tales or what’s at stake /  I  smell business in everything you do / I wasn’t surprised but it made me sick / How you turned your back on the Dixie Chicks / While waving that old Red, White and Blue.  Country Music, I’m talking to you”.

Very few if any country music artists were brave enough to speak out at the time, and it reflected Bullington’s lamentation at the demise of real country music, where singer-songwriters like Malcolm Holcomb, Mary Gauthier and Fred Eaglesmith were not stars, but, as often is the case, the song is underpinned with a dry humour.  “Sad to say but I’m afraid it’s true / You left me, I didn’t leave you”.

Number 4: ‘Born in ’55′ (from “White Sulphur Springs” 2008)

Bullington was born in 1955 and the song tells of the life events that shaped his youth, framed around a narrative where a barmaid insists on seeing his ID when he pulled off the road for a beer. It tells of the teacher crying when JFK was killed, the civil rights movement when MLK was killed (with the prescient line: “change it comes in fits and starts with no regard for lives”) and the deaths of RFK (“at that point, three great men were dead / and Nixon left alive”) and in Vietnam; then reins back the bad news : “when Hendrix lit up Woodstock”.  At the end, his beer was served which he drank and then went on his way. Fats Kaplan lights up the song with weeping pedal steel and violin.

Number 3:  ‘Twangy Guitars‘ (from “White Sulphur Springs” 2008)

With a title like this you would not expect the song to be about a diagnosis for cancer: Jimmy the storyteller tells his daughter Molly to do her homework and prepare to get home alone after school as he is taking her mother (Becky)  to the hospital for cancer test results and might be late if they are delayed at the hospital. Becky hates the hospital “(“smells like alcohol”), but in the end all is well, “the tests are free and clear” so the family are relieved, they can get a beer and a pizza on the way home and “we’re gonna have a Christmas this year”. And in all the places (the home, the school bus, the hospital, the car, the fast food place) twangy guitars play on the radio. There’s a great chorus to go with the brilliant verses :  “a gravel road on a section line / school bus coming right on time / stubble field and an inch of snow / twangy guitars on the radio”.

Number 2: ‘The Engineer’s Dark Lover‘ (from “Satisfaction Garage” 2010)

This quite beautiful song, with its pretty acoustic guitar work and lyrical viola, tells of the loneliness of a woman wondering where her train-riding husband is: “windows frame the profiles of the faces on that train / I didn’t feel much better than I did before the rain / I watched it lumber down the tracks like a beast and outta sight  / I wonder where the engineer’s dark lover is tonight”  and then: “as I walked back to my room / I thought about us / I decided it was time to leave I’ve been there long enough”. Did she leave the station after watching the train or did she leave her husband? Bullington often leaves his listeners to make up their own minds.

Number 1:  ‘I’ve Got to Leave You Now‘ (from “Ben Bullington” 2013)

Bullington wrote many songs about Montana’s sweeping landscapes and many love songs, both only minimally represented in this list, although they easily could have been. But my last selection is a love story of sorts – amazingly written before his diagnosis of terminal cancer.  It is an address to his growing boys (he had three sons) with all his hopes for them, which include avoiding battle: “carry on and save your life / and flee the crazy captain / Whose connection to this planet’s all but gone” and finding love and a decent work ethic: “put your shoulder to a purpose / and leave this world a slightly better place”, with a beautiful, lump-inducing sign off: “Our souls might mingle in the after-torch / Like four friends smoking On a midnight porch / I’ve always loved you the best I knew how / I’ve got to leave you now”