When I think of David Beck, I first think of an absolute killer of an upright bassist. But the second thing that comes to mind is: comfort. He’s got this cozy voice and warmhearted nature as a songwriter.
And what’s more comfortable than being true to your roots, surrounded by friends and family? That’s the essence of his forthcoming full length, Goodbye Country Stars, for which Beck reunited most of the kindred players from his erstwhile indie-Americana band, Sons of Fathers, as well as his real-life father: Bill Whitbeck – known for decades of service as the bassist in Robert Earl Keen’s band. Together, they went deep on the music that imprinted Beck’s musical soul from an early age.
“With this specific record, I was trying to make the best singer-songwriter album I possibly could, because that’s the world I grew up in,” he said over the phone during his cloudy, morning walk around the tiny community of Martindale, Texas. “I guess I’d been reflective, just thinking about how I grew up in this world around my dad and Robert Earl Keen and how that shaped my life immensely.
“So when they retired, about a year ago, it felt like there was a vortex in my world, an empty space. It made me think about how much I love all those songs and that type of music. All that was a really big inspiration for me to go, ‘Okay that’s what I want to do next. I want to make the best semi-country, Texas songwriter record I possibly can because I haven’t really tried to do that yet.’ So it’s basically an offering to the singer-songwriter gods.”
The completed album doesn’t have a release date yet, but the debut single hits streaming platforms October 17. Below, you can get an early listen to “North Star,” which has a natural chorus that you’ll want to pick up a guitar and strum after only hearing it once.
“It’s about going through your whole twenties running around and trying different lifestyles on – and then coming home to being in your thirties and settling into the person you’ve discovered over the years,” Beck says of “North Star.”
That’s Beck handling vocals, guitar, harmonica, and harmonium; Dee Stribling on drums; Bill Whitbeck on bass and harmonies; Regan Schmidt on mandolin; Peter Huysman on organ; and Bryan Mammel on piano.
David Beck and his band perform at South Austin honky tonk the Sagebrush on October 20 and Martindale’s brand new dancehall Duett’s Texas Club on November 11.
This article appears in October 13 • 2023.