ATHENS, GA (Top40 Charts) Ben Bostick is a South Carolina-raised, Georgia-based singer-songwriter and one man band. His influences range from
Johnny Cash to
Paul Simon to Otis Redding.
After leaving home for a decade of rambling and toiling at odd jobs, Bostick blew into California and decided to try his hand busking on the
Santa Monica Pier. To the great surprise of the former ranch hand and roofer, Bostick found that he could make a living playing music. Ben saved his busking money and used it to record his debut EP, My Country, in 2016. No Depression says, "he comes on like an unholy alliance of
George Jones and Merle Haggard." My Country was nominated for an Independent
Music Award in the Roots/Country category.
In July of 2020, Bostick's eldest daughter, Carmela, was diagnosed with Rett Syndrome, a rare and severe genetic disorder that affects all aspects of her life. In the midst of the global pandemic and personal trials, Bostick abandoned a planned album of portraits and penned a collection of love songs to help his wife and him endure this most challenging time.
"I wrote "Lucky Us" just a few weeks before we received Carmela's diagnosis. We didn't know why she was acting so differently from a typical toddler. During the regression phase of Rett Syndrome, Carmela was extremely irritable and emotionally unpredictable. Every day was a struggle. We were also struggling for money, since all my shows dried up during the pandemic. But I knew complaining and wallowing in our adversity wouldn't help, so I wrote this song as an affirmation" says Bostick.
"The Diagnosis" is another riveting number on the album. "I wrote it not long after we got the initial diagnosis, and the lyrics are stream of conscious fragments that I later pared down and edited into the finished song. The crux of the song is in the line, "Just because you know the truth don't mean that you know what it means." It's about the limits of science to guide you. Science delivers this extreme diagnosis with great accuracy, and then beyond that science is immediately useless. Science tells us what is, not what to do. Matter vs. what matters. So I'm pleading with God for an overdose of hope to guide our family through this time."
He continues "Musically, the song is completely undynamic, except for the vocals. I had to restrain the musicians for moving with the dynamics of my vocals. It's also harmonically static the whole time - just the same four chords over and over and over. The only thing that marks the different parts is the vocal melody and performance. I wanted the music to sound like the imperturbable movement of time, just flowing on its own while I wailed against its unchanging pace."
The songs on Grown Up Love are born from the experience of a couple that has been through the fire.
