From Nashville to Worthing: Ben Glover is back in the UK
But he’s back in the UK now for a tour which takes in Worthing’s Coastal Connections (Coast Café, Beach Parade) on Friday, May 18 at 8pm.
“I moved out ten years ago. I had an opportunity to do some co-writing. I had a manager at the time who said ‘Do you want to go to Nashville and do a week’s co-writing?’ That was February 2007. I came over here and I just really connected with the city.
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Hide Ad“Nashville is very much a community of songwriters unlike any other place I have ever experienced. People talk songs over here. It’s very much a community of songs and song-writers, and I just felt very much at ease in the city
“It did surprise me. When you go to a city, you are the outsider looking in, but I felt very much at home straight away in Nashville. The connection always comes from the people, and I just felt the connection with the people.
“I also met my wife to be on that trip! She was from Mississippi originally, but she was in Nashville. I had my mind and my world blown on that first trip! People over here actually talk about the process of song-writing, and I met this wonderful woman as well.”
But in a way, he doesn’t feel as if he has left the UK.
“I feel that I have one foot either side of the Atlantic. I still tour regularly back home in Ireland and in the UK. It has never felt like I have moved my life entirely across the Atlantic. Physically I suppose I have done, but it never feels like that, and that’s one of the benefits of touring. I get back home regularly.
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Hide Ad“I remember very clearly on that first trip thinking that I would be back in Nashville, and I was back in two months.
“For the next couple of years, I made very regular visits and then in 2009, I thought ‘OK, I am going to make Nashville my home base.’ I don’t know if there was any one thing that made me think that.
“But I suppose it was just the combination of everything feeling right. I fell in with a really good group of people here and felt really settled and from a career perspective, it has been fantastic in terms of my development as an artist and as a song-writer, with the co-writing and the collaboration that it has given me.
“When people hear the word Nashville, they think country music, but Nashville is so much more than country music.
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Hide Ad“I don’t consider myself a country artist. I am a singer-songwriter. I am a mil-lion miles away from commercial country. I am folk really, but all genres are here. It is just a really creative atmosphere.”
Shorebound sees him evolve even further as an artist and collaborator.
“Absolutely my music has changed. Sonically it has matured, just as I have matured on a personal and emotional level. Regarding the song-writing and deepening my artistry, it has been a journey of trying to become more true to who you are.
“I have tried to become more honest and more true to who I am as a person. I hope that that is seen in the songs. I am no longer tip-toeing around. I try to get closer to the idea.
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Hide Ad“I’m a believer in cycles, and 2018 will mark ten years since I released my first album, so it feels very much that this album is a major turning point in a cycle.
“Shorebound is an acknowledgment of where I am and a celebration of the people who I’ve gotten here with.”
For other stories by Phil, see: https://www.chichester.co.uk/author/Phil.Hewitt2
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