“A friend took me to see Ben de la Cour at a little hole-in-the-wall in Nashville. It didn’t take long to realize I was in the presence of greatness. He has much to say, and knows how to say it as only a true poet can. You owe it to yourself to check him out. He is important. You need this bright young talent now more than ever. We all need Ben de la Cour.” – Lucinda Williams

A natural storyteller, Ben de la Cour’s visceral songwriting grabs you by the heart and doesn’t let go. Weaving evocative stories of desperate characters with his signature “Americanoir” sound, de la Cour shines a glaring light on the human condition.

His latest release, New Roses, received “★★★★” from MOJO and was named Album of the Month. While Ben’s previous album Sweet Anhedonia felt like ”the American heartland witnessed through the window of a car going 80mph” (American Songwriter), New Roses feels like being stuffed into the trunk and driven into an imploding star. The record is a singular and personal vision, with de la Cour playing nearly every instrument and delivering his strongest vocal performance yet. The result is a razor-sharp album full of what he calls “night songs”— haunting, impactful songs that feel like the witching hour. In a collection of songs filled with juxtaposition and duality, de la Cour balances doom and optimism, seeking out kernels of hope in the darkness.

While much has been written of the darkness that permeates de la Cour’s music, he finds this emphasis exaggerated: “It is an optimistic record,” he says of New Roses. “You can’t be hopeful if you’re not willing to acknowledge the spectrum of the human condition. You can be overwhelmed by beauty and you can be overwhelmed by the horrors and you can be overwhelmed by both.” De la Cour remains an optimist, hopeful that his tales can help the lost, the lonely, the doomed. New Roses finds this balance and acceptance in the dualities of life, ringing true for anyone who has ever felt the need for both light and darkness—for anyone who has learned the hard way that one cannot exist without the other.

Raised in Brooklyn, de la Cour lived in London, Cuba and across the United States before making his home in the American south over a decade and a half ago. Drawing on inspiration from writers and musicians alike—Townes Van Zandt, Jimi Hendrix, Nick Cave, Nina Simone, Leonard Cohen, James Baldwin and Carson McCullers among them—de la Cour’s gothic folk songs are as heartbreaking as they are beautiful.

De la Cour’s solo tour of Ireland and UK in 2024 was met with high praise, and included sold out performances in Kilkenny and London. He will be returning to Ireland and UK in January/February 2026 as direct support for Lucinda Williams, who personally invited Ben to join the tour. This will be followed in Spring by a headlining tour of the UK in April 2026, which is certain to be Ben de la Cour’s grandest UK headline tour yet.

Julie Fowlis

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