Ben shaman - bon Courage

Ben Shaman

Bon Courage
self-released; 2013

3.6 out of 5

By Eva Cantillo

The multi-instrumentalist Ben Shaman presents us with a musical collection of encouragement: Bon Courage. The artist has pulled inspiration from his travels, schoolwork, and spending time away from home, which has made him acknowledge the importance of receiving or giving encouragement in everything we do. The music on Bon Courage is very mellow with a folky southern twist.

Each song on the album has its own southern infused sentiment, some serious, some comical and some just musically appealing. “Tell Yo Sista” is an amusing track that says “tell your sister I said what’s up.” The song “Family” is a catchy folk song that sings about the importance of family. It is such a warming and genuine song that anyone who appreciates their family can jam to; “got some pretty good friends but it ain’t the same.”

“Justine” is an ode to a girl and the song has a nice melody as the vocalist harps about “wanting to be your guy.” There is a nice harmonica part in the song that is full of longing and lust. A song with a traditional story-telling folk vibe is “Nawlins Vatican Tibetan Blues.” The guitar strums along and is accentuated by whistling towards the end. All the songs on the album really maintain the genre of classical blues folk music; each song is very innocent in a sense and very pure in both storytelling and production.

There is definitely some character showcased by Ben Shaman on this solo-project. There is time and attention put into both song writing and execution. Also, for being recorded mostly by an iPhone recorder, the production quality is noteworthy. Bon Courage is an album that can fit into anyone’s folk music collection.

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