Watch the “In The Dark” video via YouTube HERE.
“I wrote ‘In the Dark’ one afternoon about two years ago when I happened to be visiting my parents in Del Rio,” explains Beckmann. “It’s a song about misunderstanding and unanswered questions. It felt special when I wrote it and it continues to be one of my favorite songs to play.”
He continues, “The music video was shot at the Brinkley Mansion in Del Rio which is an old house from the 20’s. I had this idea of dressing up in a suit and walking around the dark hallways and bedrooms of the place. The house itself has a lot of weird history tied to it. The guy who built it was named John R. Brinkley and he was kind of eccentric. I have been in that house many times and was always fascinated with the antique furniture and trap doors that Brinkley had installed. There’s a wood panel on the wall in the office that actually opens up, they say Brinkley would hide whiskey in there since he built it during Prohibition. Luckily, the people who live there now are close family friends. They let us shoot the video there and it was such a cool experience. It really captured the essence of the song.”
William Beckmann has already caught the attention of elder statesmen like Randy Rogers and fellow Del Rio native Radney Foster with his blend of vintage country, Americana and Latin music. He sings in a timeless baritone, with a captivating, slow-burning intensity and an old soul maturity that belies his youth. His latest single “Bourbon Whiskey” radiates yearning and heartache, showcasing 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.