By: Rick Landers
A self-taught musician with a strong reverence for guitar masters, Ben Gallaher’s songs radiate a passion for the lyric-driven country music that influenced him as a young boy listening to his parents’ radio in smalltown Pennsylvania.
Gallaher’s guitar riff “Stomp” became a viral sensation, with stars from Kristin Chenoweth to Peter Frampton lauding his artistry on socials. To date, the “Stomp” riff has earned Gallaher more than 34.5 million social views and a quarter of a million Instagram followers.
The triple-threat singer, songwriter and guitarist recently released a must-hear cover of Bryan Adams’ 1983 smash hit “Cuts Like a Knife,” on which he plays every guitar part, including the song’s iconic solo.
Guitar International’s publisher, Rick Landers, spoke with Gallaher via phone from his home in Nashville, Tennessee.
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Rick Landers: How did you end up in Nashville, moving from Pennsylvania to Nashville? What prompted you to get there?
Ben Gallaher: I’ll take you back to the beginning here. I started playing guitar when I was six. My folks got me, actually a drum set before that. I kind of migrated over to guitar because they got me one, I just took to it Rick. It was a total God thing, and it just fit me. And from then on, it felt like this was what I was supposed to do. I knew that I was going to get to Nashville at some point, because I grew up on ‘90s country, strictly ‘90s country.
And country music, Nashville, that’s the place. Still is the place. And there’s nowhere else you can go for what we’re doing with country music. I knew I was going to get to Nashville, and at 19 I moved here and didn’t know anybody. And been here and on the road and making music ever since. That’s a quick version, and we can dive into some more of that stuff.
Rick: It’s like jumping off the high dive. You’re going into Nashville, where a lot of very, very talented people are and so it’s kind of risky. When you’re that age, sometimes you just go for it and sometimes things work out great.
Ben Gallaher: Somebody had asked me, “Hey, weren’t you terrified to come here and you don’t know anybody, you’re from a small town in Pennsylvania, you’re moving to the city?” And I was like, “Yeah, not really. Because I knew this is where I was supposed to be. You know, this is exactly where I’m supposed to be.”
And I could not wait. I was counting down the days to get to Nashville.
Rick: Bound for Glory! Yeah, that’s pretty cool. What was it like when you first started performing? Were you just doing open mics? And how did you develop, so you feel comfortable on stage, unless you’ve done that before you moved to Nashville.
Ben Gallaher: Yeah, I think my first performance was at a church talent show. I think it was the talent show, but I sang, “I Like It, I Love It,” by Tim McGraw. What a song! I did the school talent show. So, at a very young age, I mean, not much older than six, I would start doing those. And so I really got the bug from then on. And then I started playing open mics in probably ninth or 10th grade.
They would let me come into the restaurants, bars, probably in 10th grade, I guess. And I started to write songs. And then there’s where the switch flips from, “This is a dream. This is what I want to do.” Okay, now I’m like, 10th grade, 11th grade and this is actually not as much of a pipe dream as, “No, I’m gonna do it, I’m going to Nashville.” And I think when that flips, it’s like, “Let’s roll, baby, let’s roll!”
Rick: How is it, at a certain point, you start getting into the business details, you know, setting up gigs, trying to market yourself, and trying not to over market yourself, and all the different parts of maybe a business strategy that may be fairly simple in the beginning. But it gets more complicated when you’re starting to work with other musicians and that type of thing. So, how did that work out for you and do you have a business strategy?
Ben Gallaher: When I moved here, I went to Belmont University. I studied entertainment industry studies. I went there for three years and graduated. And so a lot of my classes were entertainment contract law, and, you know, music business, and creative technology and stuff like that. And so the classes were cool, but I was so fixated with getting on the road and playing. And so I formed a band with guys I had met at Belmont, which is a college right here in the center of Nashville, Tennessee. It really focuses on the music business.
I started renting a van until I could buy one, and booked my own dates. I mean, I’m telling you, we would play anywhere. This was throughout college where we’d go out on the weekends and then come back in and be in class on Monday morning. And I distinctly remember, nothing against Belmont, but I learned more being out on the road and just figuring it out, than you do in a classroom, because there’s no substitute for road dogging it.
And you know, you’re the leader of your guys, so we’re figuring out the dynamic of a group of four guys. Oh yeah, in a van driving eight hours when you just met them. There’s so many things that go into it. But then working with a promoter or a venue owner and the ticket sales or the door split and all that kind of stuff. I didn’t have a manager at the time, just me. And here was the big one, what do you do?
Say that you’re playing to a crowd in a bar, and your amp blows out on stage, and there’s no extra person to help. And you’ve got people there, the show’s got to go on. So, that happened to me, so I had to quickly adapt and figure it out on the fly. The crowd doesn’t care that we’re having problems. They’re there to have a good time, and it’s my job to keep that going. So, I need to keep this flow going as I’m panicking, totally panicking, but I feel like learning things like that, there’s no substitute for it, if that makes any sense.
Rick: Do you carry two amps with you now?
Ben Gallaher: Yes, I carry backups. I carry backups for my backups.
Rick: You want to make sure that you are covering the person who hired you, so that’s a good idea. Let’s dive into your new release. You’ve recently covered “Cuts Like A Knife” by Bryan Adams. What were the challenges, why did you choose that song, as opposed to maybe one of your own or somebody else’s song? And maybe this is one of many you considered. How did that work out for you?
Ben Gallaher: When we were going into the studio, not long before, my producers, Neil Thrasher and Patrick Thrasher, said – it was Neil’s original idea and he said – “Hey, you know, ‘Cuts Like A Knife’?” And I was like, “Bryan Adams is one of the best!”
And he said, “Trust me on this.” He’s like, “We’re gonna go in and record that song.” And I was like, “Really?” And he says, “You’re gonna do it in the original key.” Well, Bryan Adams gets up there pretty good. Neil says, “I need you to just trust me. I’m hearing this, and we just need to do it.” And, I said, “You got it. I’m on board.”
And we did it, and Neil was exactly right. He and Patrick brought out things in my vocal range that I didn’t even know was in there all these years. And that’s a sign of a great producer, to bring out something in an artist that they didn’t know was there. And so that’s how that all went down.
And when we got into it, I said, “This is the perfect fit for me, if I was going to do a cover song, Yeah, this is the perfect one.” And we didn’t want to make it our own version. It sounds like it does, for a reason. We wanted to pay homage to Bryan Adams and to that era of music that’s honestly iconic, and that I feel like we’re missing nowadays, but that’s a different conversation.
We kept it, it’s a tribute. I mean, that’s why you can’t take a song like that and make a completely different version, because that’s not something you could do.
Rick: I would think the only other type for that, might be an unplugged acoustic version. Might work as well, but I think you did a great job. Your vocal is spot on. And I don’t mean that it sounds like Bryan Adams, but you’re very melodic in your vocals, and there’s some grit in there as well, and that bit of grit in there is cool, that’s cool. And the guitar is great. So, you were playing, I guess, the same guitar as Keith Scott was playing on the original?
Ben Gallaher: I just played a Fender Strat, not the exact same guitar, but, yeah, I just played Strat. I played the leads on this song, not all the rhythms, because the band was playing the tracking. And I knew that Keith Scott played a Strat on there. And even if you didn’t know, you could hear it, like, “Oh, there he is, there’s a Strat.” And so I had to play a Strat on the track and match that tone. Now, some people are into this, and some people aren’t, but my live rig now and my studio rig is a Fractal. I got into the Fractal, and I absolutely love it, because I can make everything exactly how I want it, mainly for the road, because my tone will be the same every night. My delays are stereo. They’re talking to the click. Everything is dialed right where it needs to be.
So, I was like, “Well, let me try using this in the studio and try to dial up this tone.” Because I don’t have all the gear that Keith Scott would have had. I don’t have all those pedals. But, the thing about a Fractal or whatever is, they’re all pretty much in there. You just need to fine tune and pick out which ones they are.
Rick: Did you play dry without any reverb when you laid down the tracks? Or were you in the studio and you added the reverb while you were playing, or did the producer come in or the engineer come in and make some changes to make some adjustments for you?
Ben Gallaher: When I was laying that down, I think I had my delay and my reverb either way down or off, and they put that in on the back end, because once it’s on, it’s there. And I liked how it was sounding, but it was like, just in case, because you know how it is, Rick, it’s like, we find that magic take.
I played that solo a million times and they were all very close. But, just because it’s on the grid or it’s played good, sometimes it doesn’t always have the feeling. And sometimes the feeling is not always exactly correct. If you want to get technical, sure if it feels right and it’s got that magic on it, then that’s exactly what I feel like every guitar player is looking for, never mind if it’s right or wrong. Obviously, it can’t sound bad, but there’s some character things that I think make some guitar solos really cool, because it’s so real.
Rick: Yeah, I think that’s true. Hey, I see you got some Teles. What do you usually use on stage, a Stratocaster? Or do you have several guitars backing you up,
Ben Gallaher: Actually, just my Teles. I mean, I play this Strat from time to time, but mainly it’s all these Telecasters. They’re all configured with different pickups and all kinds of stuff, so they all sound completely different,
And personally, I’ve always been a Tele guy, because it just feels right in my hands. Yeah, they’re great guitars and it’s that I’m so comfortable there. I’ve bought other guitars for different sounds that I was chasing and it just wasn’t right. So, I got these guitars. One of them sounds like, in the bridge (position), sounds like a Les Paul. It’s got Seymour Duncan hot rails in it. And it’s just hot, and it’s aggressive. And so they all sound different, but yeah, are you a Tele guy?
Rick: I’ve had Teles, including a ‘66 I sold a while back. It was kind of a FrankenTele. It had a P-90 at the neck and a single coil at the bridge, and a little green light switch that I never got working. I just sold another with Joe Barden pups, then bought an ’84 Fender Esprit Elite. What do you do for acoustic guitars? Do you have any?
Ben Gallaher: Yeah, I’m a Taylor guy. I have been since about 2010. It just worked for me. And mine always sounds fantastic, and it fit me so well. Now I’m linked up with them as an endorsement and they’re just fantastic to deal with. And I play Elixir strings. I’m linked up with them too, and they’re fantastic. And Elixir strings on a Taylor, that’s kind of where I live.
Rick: Are you generally a solo performer? Or do you go back and forth? And how do you configure your band based on the venue and what they want and how much they can pay? How do you work out those type of issues?
Ben Gallaher: That’s a great question. It could be different every time I’m playing. I love to do theater solo acoustic, because you can hear, you could hear a pin drop in there. Yeah, it’s dead quiet. And I love playing solo acoustic, but by the same token, if we’re opening up for somebody at an amphitheater or we’re headlining in a club, I’m not going to want to go in there acoustic. That’s a party crowd, right? I’m not gonna want to go in there with just one acoustic.
You can only make one acoustic sound so dynamic. And so I want to go in there and crank things up with a band. Typically, I’ll go back and forth between a four-piece and a three-piece. Like last weekend, we were out and I took a three-piece out, sonically, and this is where I’m digging into sometimes with a three piece. It’s so much more open, because you don’t have this wall of sound coming out, sure, and there’s some freedom, I think, in “less is more.”
I don’t want to have notes and notes and notes and notes everywhere. There’s so much going on where sometimes I’ll lay it back a little bit and let the music breathe, and then lay in my fills, because I’m playing the leads live, and I’ll lay them in where they need to be. But, and this is something I’ve learned over the past several years, is not overplaying,
Rick: Yeah, and that can be easy to do if you’re a hot guitar player, like. shredders. It’s like, oh, it’s like, almost, after about five minutes, you’re impressed, but it’s not quite what people want to hear, because they can’t really whistle the tune or sing the tune when they leave the venue, which I think people like to do. What about house concerts? Have you played house concerts?
Ben Gallaher: I have done, early on. I would do some stuff like that with acoustic. Yeah, but no, not a band.
Rick: Do you think you’ll do that as well, if the occasion arises, when somebody wants to play a house concert acoustically? There may be opportunities around this D.C. area to do that. So, where have you toured?
Ben Gallaher: Everywhere from Maine to California.
Rick: So, you’ve been to Northern Virginia?
Ben Gallaher: Oh, yeah, I’ve been to Virginia. That’s where you guys are based out of right?
Rick: Yeah, I’m out of Reston.
Ben Gallaher: I have not played right where you’re at, but have played Virginia many times, which is not Northern, but you know Virginia Beach and Richmond and Roanoke. We’ve played those several times. Yeah, so we came through there. We’ve played, I would say, most states. I’ve been on the road for almost 10 years, and most states. I did a prison tour in Pennsylvania. I played all the state prisons.
Rick: Has your idea of success changed over time? It’s a simple question, but I think it’s worth exploring.
Ben Gallaher: As a musician, a country music artist and a guitar player, doing this for a living, you’re always climbing the ladder, right? The ladder never ends, but you can get caught up in trying to get that next thing and trying to get that thing. You sometimes could lose track of the music and why you’re really doing it. And so I always try to keep that in check. I get to play songs that I wrote and solos that I handcrafted, and pick which notes I want to go where, and I get to play them on the road. So, at the end of the day, you can’t beat that.
A lot of people hate what they do, you know? But bills have to be paid, right? I’ve been blessed to be able to do what I absolutely love and feel like is my calling, and do that for a living, as well as something that I would love to do anyways. I always keep that in check where it’s like, man, there’s always that next thing. But then you can lose track of where you’re at and, sure, yes, take the focus off of the music. And it should always be about the music, although everybody wants to be successful. I mean, that’s true. I’m not doing it for a hobby at the same time. So, there’s that line between art and commerce.
Rick: I just read a book by a guy who plays guitar. His name is Pete Kennedy. I don’t know if you know him. He’s done session work and a bunch of other stuff, and he apparently – and I hope I don’t misspeak on this – he went to a gig where it was kind of small and hardly anybody was there, but he was there with a guy who was almost legendary. Then the other guy said something along the lines of, “Whenever you’re on stage and you’re playing your guitar, that’s a great gig.”
And what do you think about success with respect to the songwriting, where you come up with a phrase or something and it just works? So, that’s success, too, I would think. And you’re like, “Ooh, it’s like an epiphany.” It’s like, “Where’d that come from?”
Ben Gallaher: Music is so subjective, right? What one person loves, another person could not like, you know, it’s not necessarily a one size fits all, because people have different tastes, so it’s very hard to measure. What is good for different people, because they have different ears. So, the way I’ve kind of always looked at that is, I write what I feel and what I like, and release what I think is good work. Obviously, I feel like any artist that puts something out, you know, that’s what they’ve got their stamp on. But I kind of measure that playing live. If I’m playing a song for the first time live, and I’m seeing people react firsthand, yeah, then that’s a success to me, because they’re latching on to a lyric and a melody. Connecting with them.
And that’s what country music is about.
Rick: With “Cuts Like A Knife,” I presume you’ve played that out with folks and with audiences. What has been the reaction? And I assume that their reaction, whatever it was, also reinforced you into making it a release.
Ben Gallaher: Yeah, we’ve been playing it, and it is awesome to see the crowd, because I think it’s unexpected, because it’s such a familiar song, but I feel like not a ton of people cover it. And so there’s a singalong bit that I get the crowd going with, with the nah-nahs.
And so I’ll get everybody singing that and it takes a lot of people back. And I think, too, the younger generation may not have heard that song, so it’s re-engaging the crowd that knows that song or grew up with it, or is a big Bryan Adams fan, as well as introducing people to that era of music, or, I guess, not necessarily that era of music, but that song.
And then maybe that genre, because there was grunge in the early ’90s, and a few other things were going on, but that song is, like you mentioned earlier, it’s iconic. And so once people have heard it and they loved it, 20 years later they’re still going to love it and sing along with you. And then the new crowd, it’s new, brand new to them. So, it resonates with them as well.
Rick: You’ve really got kind of a double whammy that you’ve really hit on, you know, hit the mark with that song, and probably other songs you do as well, I would guess.
Ben Gallaher: And social media has been a great thing for that, because I’ve been posting clips on my Instagram and my TikTok. Now, it’s reaching a lot of people that maybe didn’t know who I was. They weren’t followers of me, yet. And they see “Cuts Like a Knife,” and it shows up on their feed, and it takes them back, and they think of memories and things from when they first heard that song, when it came out in the ’80s. And then they follow me, and then go check out my other recorded music. So, that’s been a great tool to reach a lot of people that I’m thankful for.
Rick: It’s a good platform for them to start expanding their view of what else you’ve done. That’s pretty cool. So far, what has been the overall reception now that you’ve got the release out? Are you finding that these things can slowly percolate, and then they, you know, somebody listens to them, and then, boom, they’re, like, huge songs? Where are you with this particular song? As far as you know, I guess, audience responses and viewer responses to YouTube, etcetera?
Ben Gallaher: Yeah, man, back to the social media thing. It’s just been, it really has been fantastic. I mean, the feedback we’ve gotten. Some of these videos have gone viral and it’s been really cool to see all the reaction. Obviously, when an artist puts out a song, you want people to like it, you want people to, you know, really dig it and share it with people, and try to get that word out about the song. And, yeah, and that’s what it’s been doing on social, so I’m pleased about that!
Rick: It’s a great song. Okay, it sounds like you’re making progress and things are good. The song is terrific, and it sounds like you’ve also grown in the business environment. And you’re attentive to not losing track of the roots of success, which are not only the songwriting, but also when you mentioned working with the audience and the song resonates. Do you have any lessons learned that you would pass on to people who are new to the industry or young folks who want to get into this business? And I know it’s a tough business.
Ben Gallaher: That’s a great question, too, Rick, I would say a piece of advice that I used when I first moved and still have it, is I’ve never had a backup plan, because I felt like, if you have a backup plan, if you’re about to make the move to Nashville – or could be L.A., New York, Atlanta, whatever genre, whatever music, where you want to take it from playing in the house to, “I want to do this full time” – it’s going to be a lot of sacrifice. So, you can’t have any backup plan, or you’re already setting yourself up for, “Well, maybe this isn’t going to work.” And that’s a bad headspace.
You have to be self-aware enough to know where the line is, but it’s like, “This is what I was supposed to do. And no matter what, I’m going to do it.” And so, and I’ve been in Nashville for a long time, because there’s this, “This is what I do.” And there has never been a time where I teetered, even when, you know, this is a hard business.
There’s a lot of players, there’s a lot of noise, you know, and it’s hard to break through. You have to deal with a lot of – like in any other industry – politics, and musicians battle through all that where, you know, where it seems like it’s not about the music anymore. You know you’re up against a mountain of those things.
But I never lose the fact of why I’m here, and it’s always about the music. And I never really had a thought of “Man, this is kind of a climb,” that I’m thinking, “Maybe I need to do something else.” That’s never crossed my mind because I never had a backup plan. So, my advice to somebody that wants to really do it is to be 1,000% in and immerse yourself in that.
Rick: All right, cool. And so is there anything that we haven’t covered that you would like to talk about?
Ben Gallaher: We could talk about “Stomp,” that I released. It’s my last release prior to “Cuts Like A Knife.” That song was born from a guitar riff. I sat right where I’m sitting right now, and played this riff that I had written years prior, but it got lost in the vault, you know? And sometimes, this was in the vault and it came back to me, and I started playing. I was like, “Man, this feels so good.”
I was like, “Maybe I’ll just put this up on my social media, on Instagram.” And I did, and with no expectation at all, and that thing took off. And the first video I posted hit 7.8 million views. And my social media was lighting up, I mean, through the roof, and all of the thousands of comments are, “What’s the song title?” Well, there was no song at that time. So, I call my producers, and I said, “You guys got to check this out.” And Neil, one of the producers, is a very big songwriter, and I write a lot of songs with him, and I said, “We gotta write something to this, because the people are reacting to just a 15- or 18-second riff.” I was like, again, it’s grabbing attention from people that never knew who I was.
And so we wrote it, and the caption of the Instagram post was “Boot Stomping,” because I was keeping time with my boot on my pedal board case. It was totally acoustic and it made you feel like you wanted to stomp. It was this kind of backwoods, kind of swampy little mix of, you know, it was country, but it had some Muscle Shoals in it, and it has this cool vibe. And so we titled the song “Stomp.” And I said, “Well, maybe we got lucky with this algorithm on social media. I’m gonna post it again, just to see.” And that one went viral too. I think, six million to 6.2-or-something million!
Rick: Wow, that’s incredible!
Ben Gallaher: And so we knew we had something special. And by that time the song was done, so we put the song out. And to date, that riff has, I think, 33 million views.
Rick: Well, that’s amazing.
Ben Gallaher: It was. It’s a huge blessing, man, it really was; to connect with that many people on a piece that you write. It doesn’t happen very often. So, it’s something special as a creator. You know, as a musical writer and a musical creator, to write something to connect with that many people is the reason why you do it.
Rick: You’re self-taught. Tell me about the road of, you know, what did it take to have the discipline to learn guitar and then learn to play it well, which are two different things. And, what was the process? And I’ll just insert one thing. When I was a kid, we just had a 45 player, and then we’d just put the song on, you know, put the needle on the song, listen to a few notes, learn the notes, and go to the next three or four notes. So, what was your process with the Internet?
Ben Gallaher: Yes, CDs. When I was growing up, it was CDs, and I’d have a pile of them. But yeah, I had a couple lessons early on, and then after that, I was just playing by my ear, and I think I was training my ear all throughout that whole process. But I didn’t know it yet, as a self-taught guy. And you’ll understand this because you said you’re a self-taught musician.
There are pros and cons of that, because if you’re playing by ear or if you’re playing by feel, you can color outside the lines. Sometimes if you were so strict on theory, well, that technically doesn’t work there. And I’ve always looked at it as, man, if it sounds good, it is good. But that also can box you in a little bit if you don’t know, like, where could this go here?
And I don’t know all that stuff. So, when I’m writing my solos for all the songs, minus “Cuts Like A Knife,” because I didn’t change it. But with all my original songs, I’m handwriting those solos, and it’s mainly all by feel, on where does the song take me? Choices are so important, and melodic note choices – where it’s not just jamming in how many notes you can play and how fast can you play it – are what helps you play something that moves you.
Rick: So, you’re self-taught. Did you learn the fretboard as well? Or that’s all by feel. Or are you technically kind of astute with music theory, that type of thing?
Ben Gallaher: I think I know some music theory, inadvertently, right? I don’t know all the scales or the whole fretboard but I know enough to improvise or write by trusting my ear and feel.
Rick: Have you ever heard of a fellow named John Martyn?
Ben Gallaher: There’s a John Martin that lives in Nashville.
Rick: This guy’s British. He passed away in 2009. I recall reading that he once said, “I don’t want to know that stuff,” or something along those lines, because he felt it would limit him. You just said something similar. You’re looking for the chord or the note, something that feels right, and it may not be technically right, but maybe you found something that others have not used, as far as we know, and it just works.
Ben Gallaher: I love that. I’ll check him out. There’s freedom in that, Rick. I mean musically. I think there’s musical freedom in being able to explore that without being so textbook on everything – sure and predictable, you know. So, you come up with some good stuff.
