By Brian Argabright
Country music loves its songs about alcohol.
From “There’s a Tear in My Beer” to “White Lightning” to more modern hits like “Beer Never Broke My Heart” and “Must Be the Whiskey,” songs about enjoying an adult beverage, in good times and bad times, are as a much a part of the fabric of country music as the twang of a steel guitar or boots stomping on a dance floor.
Del Rio’s William Beckmann has now added his part to this legacy with his newest single, “Bourbon Whiskey,” which dropped on streaming services Tuesday morning.
You can listen to the song online at https://fanlink.to/BourbonWhiskey . Some sites require a subscription.
Though Beckmann has already released an EP and the optimistic “Someday,” his newest single is a big departure from his previous work. With a classic troubadour feel, the song harkens back to country music’s roots and that’s just what Beckmann intended.
“It’s one of my older songs, to be honest. I wrote it in 2015,” Beckmann said. “The first year I was living in Nashville I didn’t know anybody here and a lot of the songs people were writing were very progressive. I spent a lot of time listening to a lot of records I had bought during my time in Austin at some cool record stores. I love vinyl and you could get a lot of great records for $4 to $5. I’m talking old country like George Jones, Ray Price, Hank Williams, and those were the records I’d buy.”
Beckmann said listening to those classics gave him the inspiration to write what he described as an “intentional throwback, old school thing.” And “Bourbon Whiskey” was born.
“I wrote that song kind of like paying homage to where country music came from. It’s a really simple song with a really simple melody, simple chords and lyrics. I wanted to write a song like someone in that era would have released,” Beckmann said.
The song tells the story of a man whose woman is leaving him. Instead of fighting for her or begging her to stay, he said he’d instead spend the evening drinking bourbon whiskey with friends. When asked if it was based on a personal experience, Beckmann laughed and said no but alluded the story may not end there.
“There’s a level of arrogance in that guy. He has a woman who’s leaving and he acts like he really doesn’t care. He’s just gonna sit there and drink with his friends. I have another song where it’s basically same guy who sobers up and thinks, ‘Oh no! What have I done? I didn’t realize I messed up,’” Beckman said.
Fans who had heard Beckmann perform live will recognize “Bourbon Whiskey,” as it’s become a staple of his on stage performances. He said fans had been asking if it would ever been released, but Beckmann said it was just the beginning for his plans regarding more music to come in 2021.
“I have a whole EP that’s been recorded and the plan is to constantly put new songs out so that by end of the year it will come out as a single body of work,” Beckmann said. “It took a little while to happen just because of COVID. The original plan was to record at the beginning of 2020, so I’m barely getting back to doing what I was supposed to do about a year ago. But every two to three months, there will be a new song I will be putting out.”
As for that new music, Beckman said he’s got surprises coming up for fans.
“It’s going to be a little bit different. There are a couple of songs more in the traditional vein. There’s a waltz I have which is about Acuña and there are some Spanish parts in that song. There’s also a song about our hometown, ‘Danced All Night Long’ that I’ve had for a long, long time. I’ve also got a more singer-songwritery song called ‘30 Miles’ that’s going to be more of a James Taylor-kind of a thing about love in a small town.”
