Ben de la Cour's music intersects gothic Americana and dark, gritty folk. It's a sound fueled by the stories and struggles of its creator. Albums like Ben's 2012 debut, Ghost Light, and 2016's career-shifting Midnight in Havana chronicled Ben's attempt to wrestle his vices into submission. The result was a haunting, harrowingly personal version of folk music that earned praise from American Songwriter and NPR outlets. His stark tales of heartbreak, hangovers, God, and death seemed to harken back to folk's roots, making him a modern torchbearer of a classic sound. "Folk music has a long tradition of darkness, and I know a lot about darkness." That darkness takes on new dimensions with his fifth record, Sweet Anhedonia, a gripping collection of Americana noir songwriting, heartland rockers, and folk ballads. He recorded the album with Jim White, a cult folksinger celebrated for his Southern gothic sound. Sweet Anhedonia makes room for acoustic fingerpicking and electric amplification, casting Ben's stories against backdrops of haunting roots music, Springsteen-sized heartland rock, moody minimalism, and orchestral, cinematic bombast. Ben doesn't shy away from nodding to his influences — including Townes Van Zandt, Nick Cave, and author Raymond Carver. Special guests on the album include: Elizabeth Cook (Shine On The Highway), Emily Scott Robinson (Sweet Anhedonia), Becky Warren (Numbers Game), Luella (Appalachian Book Of The Dead), Serre (Maricopa County, Sweet Anhedonia)