From Montrose to Mizzou: Branson Musician Ben Coulter picks out a musical career
Ashley County News Observer written by Todd Bergmen
For Ben Coulter, a Montrose native and a 1998 graduate of Hamburg High School, what started as deer camp activity has become a career in Branson, Mo. Coulter said that in his early years he went to the Portland Reserve and Hunting Club, where people sang and played guitar. "We played more guitar than hunting deer," he said. Outside of that, music was not a part of Coulter's early life. Benjamin Luke Coulter, named for Star Wars characters, played baseball in high school and studied agriculture and history at the University of Arkansas-Monticello. While in college, Coulter decided to play guitar. "I figured it would be a good way to pick up girls," he said. At age 19, Coulter asked his mother, Kathy Coulter, who works at a Portland Bank, for an acoustic guitar for Christmas. "He asked me for a guitar," Kathy Coulter said. "I thought it would end up on the shelf after two weeks." Now, Ben Coulter's fingers are picking guitar and his voice is singing with it in Branson, Fayetteville, and other places. He plays country and a little Gospel.
Coulter said he takes after his favorite country artists-Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams Sr. "I wanted to play music," Coulter said, "But, there was not a place to play in Monticello."
In May of 2004, Coulter dropped out of the University of Arkansas-Monticello and took his guitar, $400 and a pickup truck to Branson. When first in Branson, Coulter started looking for a day job, Gerry Moore, owner of the Dixie Country Inn, a 56-room motel in Branson said. "The first time he played for my wife and I, I knew he had talent," Moore said. The next day, Moore took Coulter to a recording session where he made a demo compact disc. "He took me under his wing when I first got to Branson," Coulter said about Moore. Coulter has a voice range as good as Haggard or Jennings, Moore said. "He's really talented," Moore said, "He's got a good vocal range. He's a good Christian young man." Moore said that he helped Coulter get a gig playing his guitar for tips at Shorty Small's, a Branson restaurant. Coulter entertains customers on the patio while they are waiting to eat and in the restaraunt while they eat. In Branson, guitar players other than headliners typically make $40 a show, Moore said. "That's why most people play three shows a night," Moore said. Coulter said he makes $650 to $700 a week in tips during the summer, playing at Shorty Small's and the Pasta House, another restaraunt. When playing in restaurants, Coulter does not just do the standard 45-minute set, typical of union musicians. "I just sit down for an hour and a half or two hours," Coulter said, "Then, I go to the bathroom for a few minutes." "I don't want folks to miss my music."
Coulter plays and sings songs he wrote himself as well as country standards.
During the winter, Coulter heads south to Fayetteville, where he works a day job in a University of Arkansas entomology laboratory, watches the Razorbacks and plays his guitar Thursday nights at Sodie's.
Moore said, "He likes to play for kids his age." Coulter said that he often gets home at midnight, which in Branson is the Dixie Country Inn, picks up his guitar and writes some new songs. Coulter said that his hometown of Montrose and its surrounding railroad tracks and cotton fields are often the theme for his songs. Coulter's recent album "Songwriter" has a cover picture of the artist beside the Union Pacific Railroad tracks and its line sign for Montrose. Songs that Coulter wrote and recorded include "Someday I'm Goin home," "I Wanna go out West," "Goin down to Montrose," "Old School," "I Know Where I'll Be Found," "Ten Miles North of Louisiana," "I'm a Razorback Fan," "Railroad Blues," "Louisiana Trainride," and "The First Big Record I make I'm goin Home." Although Coulter has cut a couple of albums, he has not made a big record deal. Coulter will be close to home, singing and playing, on March 3rd at the Lakeshore Cafe in Lake Village from 6:30 to 9pm. Across the river, Coulter's music received airplay on WDMS, 100.7 FM in Greenville, Miss., but virtually no place else. To get airplay, one has to know a disc jockey, Coulter said. In addition, Coulter said that his music is not the type that most stations air.
He said, "It is just me and a guitar." But Moore said that Coulter has put on the shelf the guitar his mother bought him and purchased a new $3,000 Martin guitar. Moore said, "He's got the best guitar in the business."
