IT'S not often you meet an American musician who loves Cold Chisel, little alone one who proudly sports a Jimmy Barnes tattoo.
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But Nashville's Ben de la Cour isn't your usual singer-songwriter.
He has quite the backstory with enough twists and turns in his 38 years to colour the most compelling biography.
Born in London and raised in Brooklyn where he started playing iconic venues like CBGB, de la Cour moved to Havana at 17 where he fought as an amateur boxer.
After realising trading punches professionally was more pain than it's worth, de la Cour focused on music and developed his brand of alt-country, which has been described as "Americanoir".
Along the way de la Cour has released four albums, lived in London, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and finally Nashville, battled alcohol and substance abuse and spent stints in rehab and psychiatric wards.
The 2020 album Shadow Land with its songs about suicide (Swan Dive), rehab (The Last Chance Farm) and outlaws (God's Only Son) proved a breakthrough, earning de la Cour rave reviews and his first record deal.
On April 14 de la Cour will release his fifth album Sweet Anhedonia.
Anhedonia is a mental disorder where a sufferer has an inability to experience pleasure from activities usually found enjoyable.
However, de la Cour assures the music isn't as depressing as it sounds.
"I feel my music is pretty bleak, but there's definitely hope in there. That's how I feel," he says.
"If life was hopeless I wouldn't be doing anything. I would have jumped off a building long ago.
I always think it's interesting how people find hope in even the most horrendous situations.
- Ben de la Cour
"I always think it's interesting how people find hope in even the most horrendous situations. It's always a testament to human fragility and the resilience of people.
"People go through unimaginable horror and somehow make it through."
Australia has long been a fascination for de la Cour. When he was 16 he discovered Cold Chisel after his cousin returned home from Australia with the pub rock legends' self-titled 1978 album on cassette.
"It was the only tape in his truck and we would drive around and listen to that," he says.
Last year de la Cour even got a Jimmy Barnes tattoo done, based off a backstage black and white photo taken in Chisel's halcyon days.
In February 2020 de la Cour's travels finally brought him to Australia and through Americana stalwarts Lachlan Bryan and Laura Coates, of The Weeping Willows, he met rising Melbourne Americana songstress, Katie Bates.
The new friends hatched a plan to tour together, but due to COVID the shows didn't eventuate until last year.
After a successful run of gigs, which included shows at Newcastle's The Ship Inn, Dungog's Royal Hotel and Maitland's Grand Junction Hotel, Bates booked a second tour for herself and de la Cour to coincide with the Tamworth Country Music Festival.
De la Cour, who has been sober for four and a half years, admits he's struggled with the brutal lifestyle of being a touring musician in the past. Sharing the load with Bates has been a welcome change.
"It definitely makes it easier," he says. "It's nice to have the companionship and Katie and I have known each other for a few years now.
"I'm sure I drive her nuts, but she tolerates it, so far."
Bates' fascination with the darkness of gothic country comes from a completely different angle to de la Cour.
As a 10-year-old she began writing songs and was influenced by her father's love of Americana heroes Neil Young, Tom Petty and Gillian Welch and her mother's taste for grunge legends Nirvana and Soundgarden.
Those contrasting genres have coloured Bates' EPs New Gold (2018) and Until The Day Dies (2021).
"I've always liked music that was a little bit gritter and rocky and darker," Bates says.
"I don't know particularly why, it's just always spoken to me. I don't feel like I've had a troubled life. I had a great childhood, it's nothing to do with that.
"I've just loved grunge music and incorporated that into the Americana world because I've always wanted to do both."
Bates has become a key figure in Melbourne's Americana scene, not just through her own material, but as a bassist for Ben Mastwyk & The Millions, Catherine Britt and Lachlan Bryan.
She's also landed a support tour with rockers Kingswood in Victoria.
"Honestly it's made me a better musician and I'm actually better at my own stuff because I've been in other bands and playing for other people," she says.
"You listen to people more and you connect with people you're playing with more and I feel it's made me much better."
Bates has a debut album's worth of songs ready and plans to record in 2023.
"I'm on the road for most of the year so I don't know when I'll actually find time to make that album, but I'll try to make it happen and it'll be a little different to my stuff that I've put out before," she says.
"It's going to be even more rocky."
Katie Bates and Ben de la Cour play the Stag & Hunter Hotel on Thursday and the Royal Hotel in Dungog on Friday.