Ben Arnold

"I was suckin' honey, everything was funny, throwin' all my money around, everything in reach, every little piece, I was pickin myself off the ground," sings Ben Arnold on the unapologetically infectious opening track "Suckin' Honey" from his forthcoming new album, Nevermind My Blues. It's a simple enough lyric on the surface, but the true genius in Ben's songwriting resides within the twist of fate for the protagonist. Time and again, Ben reaches across that intangible divide between artist and audience to make a connection, comforting listeners with the knowledge that they're not alone in their trials and tribulations. By verse three, Ben finds himself: "Sucker punched and beaten, trampled and defeated, never saw it comin' my way, bumped and bruised and bleedin', I was barely breathin', screamin' out with nothin' to say." The resolution, and quite possibly the album's underlying theme, however, is found in the song's confectionary sweet refrain: "But the world keeps turnin' and the sun keeps burnin' strong, and the moon keeps glowin' and the wind keeps blowin' along." No matter how tough the breaks, Ben Arnold finds a way to step back and put life into proper perspective. It makes for the kind of universal songs that are as spiritually substantial as their hooks are relentless; akin to those that once found life atop the pop charts by the likes of Cat Stevens, Randy Newman, Graham Parker, Warren Zevon and more recently David Gray.