Traditions. They connect people across generations, bridging the gap between past and present, reminding us that sometimes even in a world that's always changing the best things in life stay the same. For songwriter Will Banister, few traditions are better than traditional country music.
"This is the only music I've ever listened to," he says. "It's the only music I've ever made. I don't think I could do anything different, even if I tried."
With Forever — a mix of old-school honky-tonk, western swing, Cajun music, and barroom ballads — Banister puts a personalized spin on the timeless country music that he first heard as a child. Born and raised in eastern New Mexico, he grew up in a town surrounded by endless acres of pasture and farmland, within 20 miles of the Texas state line. At home, his father played records by Merle Haggard, Hank Williams, George Strait, and Marty Robbins, filling the household with songs that seemed to suit the western landscape outside. "That music just got into my blood," Banister remembers. At 11 years old, he received an acoustic guitar for Christmas and began strumming his first chords. "It was a cheap, old Hondo guitar, and I played it during a local show that next year," he adds. "I did an old Hank Williams song, and I've been hooked ever since."
More shows followed. Banister began touring throughout New Mexico and West Texas as a young adult, playing four hours a night, molding his smooth voice into shape. He wrote his own songs, too, and quickly found a mentor in Roger Springer, the chart-topping songwriter behind hits for Mark Chesnutt and others. The two musicians struck up not only a friendship, but an ongoing collaboration, as well, with Banister making monthly songwriting trips to Nashville. There, joined by occasional co-writers like Zach Top, Jake Worthington, and Jeff Hyde, he and Springer pieced together the songs that form Forever.
"It's a collection of some of my favorite songs that I've ever written or simply heard," says Banister, who co-wrote more than half of the record's tracks. On the swampy "Honky Tonk Talkin'," he trades verses with Jake Worthington, another deep-voiced country traditionalist with a bottomless love for the classics. On "I'd Like To Have That One Back," he takes a nostalgic trip down memory lane, singing wistfully about the ones that got away — from his beloved 1985 Chevy to his first girlfriend — over a sweeping mix of fiddle, acoustic guitar, and background harmonies. With "On a Monday," he delivers a boot-stomping, Zydeco-inspired barn burner that nods to George Strait's "Adalida." And on the record's gorgeous title track, "Forever," he sings about the things that outlive us all, showcasing the full range of his voice over a lush arrangement of piano and pedal steel . "If 'forever' was a person, that's who I'm singing to," he says of the song. "It's about finding that forever kind of love."
There's no overstating the power of Banister's voice. It's a classic country coon — the sort of voice that's as ageless as the songs it delivers — and its fans include western icon Clint Eastwood, whose critically-acclaimed film Cry Macho features Banister's vocals on the opening song "Find a New Home." Even so, he's rarely sounded as compelling as he does on Forever, delivering performances that nod to the glory days of country music without sacrificing his modern appeal. He's a traditionalist for today's world, finding the middle ground between the classic and the contemporary. With its all-American stories about love, life, and longing, Forever finds him earning a spot in the lineage of timeless country music.