{"id":3661,"date":"2012-02-01T11:09:16","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T17:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=3661"},"modified":"2012-02-01T11:09:16","modified_gmt":"2012-02-01T17:09:16","slug":"hillbilly-highway-a-bud-with-ben-wytinck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2012\/02\/01\/hillbilly-highway-a-bud-with-ben-wytinck\/","title":{"rendered":"Hillbilly Highway – A Bud with Ben W"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

by Sheldon Birnie<\/strong><\/p>\n

Local jack-of-all-trades Ben Wytinck<\/a> is a busy guy. Between working full-time as a sound technician, playing drums in hard boozing Bad Country <\/a>and rural wedding-social superstars Arnie, he\u2019s also carving out quite the name for himself as a singer-songwriter to be reckoned with.<\/p>\n

\u201cEventually I\u2019d like to have my music be my business,\u201d he told me over a beer at the ANAF Club 60 the other night. I\u2019ve known Wytinck for a number of years now, since his time in Johnny Upstairs & The Basements<\/a> back in the \u2018Oughts.<\/p>\n

Music, as a business, is something Wytinck is rather familiar with. A very young looking 30, Ben\u2019s been playing drums professionally since he was eight years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a kid, it was a great experience,\u201d he says of his time playing in his father\u2019s country cover band. \u201cIf you\u2019re 9 years old and you\u2019re playing in a bar, that has some charm. People were very attentive and a good response.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wytinck\u2019s journey to a solo performer has been a long one. Gaining a respect for storytellers like Willie Nelson<\/a>, Gordon Lightfoot<\/a>, and Paul Simon <\/a>from his father\u2019s record collection early on, Ben started writing songs years ago, playing them first around campfires and bottles of booze at parties. As he developed his confidence as a performer, he began to play occasional gigs and open mics, and began recording his tunes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was maybe 6 years from the first song I wrote to when I finished the album,\u201d he says of his debut eponymous disc, released in 2009. The release party for this beauty, which I attended, was held in his brother\u2019s barn outside of Teulon, MB. It was a wild night, full of beautiful tunes and booze crazed high jinx. But before he delved into the album, he \u201cdid a bunch of drafts, probably did a whole album in a closet. Very raw, coming up with ideas, working on layering, stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attention to detail is something you\u2019ll notice not only on W\u2019s recordings, but in the songs themselves. Like those early influences of Nelson, Lightfoot, and Simon, Wytinck\u2019s tunes are each very carefully crafted. Take a listen to \u201cNever to Return Again\u201d or \u201cCheesy Lines & Dirty Jokes\u201d for prime examples.<\/p>\n

Never one to sit and rest on his laurels, Ben W is keeping busy over this mild-winter, playing behind the kit and up front alternately. Come summer, you\u2019ll likely find this troubadour out on the Highway more and more. For now, check him out in the city at Aqua Books February 15, at the Standard Tavern for a singer-songwriter night with Carly Dow<\/a>, the Revenerend Rambler <\/a>(and yours truly) February 24. For you fine country folk, Ben\u2019s playing the Lakeview Hotel in Lac du Bonnet February 26. If you\u2019re lucky, he\u2019ll bust out his cover of \u201cBoys in the Bright White Sports Car\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Sheldon Birnie Local jack-of-all-trades Ben Wytinck is a busy guy. Between working full-time as a sound technician, playing drums in hard boozing Bad Country and rural wedding-social superstars Arnie, he\u2019s also carving out quite the name for himself as a singer-songwriter to be reckoned with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[100,432,563],"class_list":["post-3661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","tag-ben-wytinck","tag-hillbilly-highway","tag-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3661\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}