ALBUM PREMIERE: Ben Stalets Offers Unvarnished Midwest Roots Rock on ‘Lucky Dog’

Lucky Dog is a long-time comin’. Toledo-based artist Ben Stalets took nearly three years to pen it. And when one thinks of the artist? The word ‘roots’ immediately comes to mind. There’s an exceptional type of magic that arises in a musician when they honor where they come from and who they’ve been. This LP consists of ten Midwestern vignettes (or rather, characters) who are fully fleshed out. Each song manages to provide a completely different flavor, as if we are opening a new book each time the track changes (while sonically remaining in the same groovin’ wheelhouse).

The opener “Florida MP3” has hints of blues baked inside the heart of its stompy, satisfying sound. The moment the artist opens his mouth to sing, we are not just listening, but are rather impacted by his crisp vocals. Then, throughout the entire album, there are these little coy lines that immediately make us want to laugh out loud… like ‘despite the old white republicans’ or ‘Now I’ve been replaced by- Chad’ “I got my ass beat beneath the jungle gym” and “And god I love…her…rack!” His sound lingers like a single-malt oak-barrel aged liquor tickles your tongue long after the glass is already finished..Sweet, but fiery. In just one track, we feel weather-worn (as if we’ve already lived a lot of life alongside Ben). If “Florida” were escapism, then “Lucky Dog” is an American blue-collar corrido. It has unexpected chromatism, and hope nestled inside hopelessness like a stacking doll. The further we get into the title track, the more corridos-esque it becomes. A gun gets involved…a melodious steel slide comments accordingly… Lucky Dog encompasses playfulness, blatant human desire, and brutal honesty all at once. And isn’t that how life serves us things, anyway?

“I’ve Been Learning” gives us a gritty-but-peppy flavor amidst the light-footed guitar and shuffling drums. Throughout the self-aware collection of tunes, we resonate with what it feels like to be the little man: a proletariat, or a bird trapped in a cage where the door has always been shut. Midway through the album, “So What” culminates into a palatable duet between an ornamental rhythm guitar part and then a smooth-but-unconstrained electric solo. It’s at this point in the LP that the singer’s voice takes on a new hue.

Then there’s “Roofing Song,” the album’s working-class waltz. Next, “Daddy Too” lays down the line with a boundary and expresses how much work fatherhood is. Then, in the next breath, “Protection” shows us the sultry, tongue-in-cheek side of life.

Today, Glide is excited to offer an exclusive premiere of the album in its entirety. Listen to the album and read our conversation with Stalets below…

Do you believe in luck?

Hahaha, that’s an incredible question that I can’t give you a straight answer to. On one hand, I know that there’s an element of luck in everything. The best pool players in the world can’t sink the 8 ball on the break every time. It’s just not something you can practice and perfect. So, in that sense I definitely do believe in luck.

Who was the first person you heard say ‘Long in the Tooth’? I’ve heard this phrase in reference to corn or beans that had been left to grow a little too long!

One of my heroes, Billy Joe Shaver, has a song of the same name. I had to look up what it meant and like most things I find interesting I latched on to it. I probably heard it other times, but it didn’t really stick to me until I heard Billy Joe.

Would you ever be willing to share or distinguish between which songs were about your life, and which are about others?

Every song on here is directly or indirectly relating to me. I certainly see it through my own perspective even if I’m trying to see it through a few other perspectives as well. Not all the characters are real, though. Most of them are, and others represent real people. For example, the roofing song is a true story that my buddy told me. I didn’t know their names, but I knew that story. I didn’t know how the story ended. The guy could’ve died for all I know. In my song he makes it. The guy playing the organ was a session player by the name of Evan Mercer.

You mentioned that your lawyer, Larry Meyer, is also your friend. How did this relationship help propel the album to the finish line?

Larry is the single most important part of this rinky-dink operation. He’s in my case, he offers up wisdom, he keeps me out of the slammer… as you’re reading this he’s probably waiting on me to email him something so that we can keep the ball rolling forward. Maestro!

What do you most love and most hate about Toledo?

When I first started writing songs I didn’t want my songs to sound like they came from Toledo. I wanted them to make me seem like some cool ass mysterious kid from anywhere but the midwest. I started wearing tight pants and giving short answers when people were kind enough to interview me. God I was a dick. I guess I was just trying to be like Dylan.
After about a decade or so of being humbled I think my ego was tempered enough to accept my reality as a Toledoan and quite frankly, I’m proud of it now. I think Toledo is very real, and all the things that I used to think it lacked are the reasons I know it’s special now. Nobody wears cowboy hats and aviators in our bars without getting their balls busted. It’s just real people. The kind of people that inspire actors, influencers, musicians, fashionistas. Ever heard of ripped jeans? Those were invented in Toledo. I don’t hate anything about Toledo because I think most of the things I take issue with are either worse and less fixable in bigger cities, or less realistic in smaller cities. I’d rather focus on contributing what I can to our city to make it everything I think it could be.

Your album combines tongue-in-cheek lines with the serious makings of real life- How do you do it?

The way that my heroes did it, the way that I think is most effective – is to get listeners guard down with humor. There’s no rule book that says you shouldn’t talk about serious things in a humorous way. That’s what I try to do. I also think it helps when you’re not being cryptic. If you can provide a story that makes sense and everyone listening can identify and hopefully empathize with. I think that’s 1-2 combo.

You say that there is ‘nothing and no one who is glamorous’. Why do you think that there are people who pretend to be?

I’m the furthest thing from an expert on anything. I’m more of a professional amateur at this point. I think I was saying that there’s nothing and no one who is glamorous on this record. Meaning these songs aren’t trying to be something they’re not. No big string or horn sections, and all real characters. I think people try to be glamorous to portray themselves as something so other people who feel similar gravitate towards them. Like peacocking. It’s really the same thing I’m doing, except I’m using lyrics. I can’t afford the glamour.

Finally, your last track, “Too Long in the Tooth,” feels more lyrically cryptic compared to the others. What do the lyrics mean, and why did you choose to make the final line about learning to love to wait?

I agree it’s the most cryptic. It was an accident. I didn’t want to put it on the album for that reason, but Bunky and Drew both pressured me. Somebody should write a smear piece on them for bullying me. I think it is about a guy who was a bad partner, but ended up in a committed relationship by circumstance. Then he goes off to prison for a few years and his wife had a kid during that time and it seems like the narrator probably wasn’t the father. But, he doesn’t look a gift horse in the face. He raises and protects the kid as his own. Even from their biological dad. I think the idea behind it is probably pretty similar to that old parable about the Chinese farmer. His horse ran away and everyone was like “that sucks so bad dude” and he simply said “maybe”. The next day his horse comes back with like 5 other horses and the townspeople were like “Okay Mr. Horse guy, you’re so lucky!” And he’s like “maybe” and it goes on and on. The morale that I took away from it, is it’s too soon to tell if something is good or bad. There’s nothing new under the sun and so I guess I was saying the same old thing. I think.