Today, William Beckmann shares the music video for his new single “Bourbon Whiskey,” directed by Preston Leatherman at The 254 Collective. Featuring an old soul maturity that belies his youth, the new song faces down pain and despair as it searches for comfort at the bottom of a bottle.
Watch the “Bourbon Whiskey” video via YouTube HERE.
“I wrote ‘Bourbon Whiskey’ when I was 20 years old at a time when I was influenced heavily by a lot of traditional country records,” explains Beckmann. “The song itself feels like a throwback and we wanted to capture the same feeling in the video.” He continues, “The main character is not too concerned with the fact that his relationship just fell apart, he’d rather be at the bar drinking with his friends. So we shot it in slow motion and really played into that character.”
William Beckmann sings in a timeless baritone, delivering a blend of vintage country, Americana, and Latin music with a captivating, slow-burning intensity. With its shuffling drums and languid pedal steel, “Bourbon Whiskey” is the perfect example of why he has already caught the attention of elder statesmen like Randy Rogers and fellow Del Rio native Radney Foster. The song radiates yearning and heartache, and showcases the sincerity, simplicity, and visceral emotion that mirrors his favorite old country records.
“I remember buying a record player my freshman year and going around to all the great record shops in Austin looking for cheap, used vinyl,” says Beckmann. “I’d stumble onto boxes and boxes of Kenny Rogers, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and George Jones, and the more I listened to that stuff, the more I realized that my voice could do a lot of the same things those guys were doing.”
Born and raised in the small border town of Del Rio, TX, Beckmann comes from a long line of cattle ranchers, but he always found himself more drawn to singing about cowboys than becoming one. After a few years spent in Austin, he relocated to Nashville, where he recorded his 2018 debut Outskirts of Town (produced in part by Foster). That EP led to tour dates with Rogers, Parker McCollum and Wade Bowen, as well as a publishing deal with Warner Chappell.
William Beckmann is set to release even more new music in 2021. Stay tuned for details.