SongVault Artist Profile

Born 1970 in Southern Maryland. I began to be influenced by Country Music early in my childhood. My grandmother would constantly play Johnny Cash on the house 8-track and my father would constantly play CW McCAll on the truck 8-track...

Hello Everyone My name is Robert Beall. I am a Country Singer/Songwriter/ and half ass guitar player from North Carolina. I grew up in Southern Maryland and as a child we were rather poor. My mother invested all her money int a track of land of about 25 acres of woods. What she failed to plan for was housing, electric or water.

We moved onto the land with no house. We cut down trees to make logs and then we stacked the logs; just like any typical firewood stack, and we placed a blue tarp over them for a roof and there we were; at home.

We lived in this make-shift cabin for about a month, then my mother bought a single-wide trailer and me moved in.

Yeah we were Kings without water or electricity.

We lived in that trailer without utilities for about one year. I remember for several months we washed ourselves in 55 gallon drums of water we got from the local firehouse. We would go to the local bakery and get 5 gallon buckets they threw out and we would clean them and fill them with water to drink from and wash our dishes.

One day I came home from school and I noticed a yard full of well rings sitting in the front yard. I was so glad we were finally gonna get water, but little did I know it would be my 8 year old but digging that well every afternoon for 6 more months with the help from my brother. I remember looking up from the bottom of that hole and seing the sky. It was about the size of a dime.

After having established utilities and such we built a barn, where we raised horses. Those horses became my childhood best friends. I spent days in that barn with my friends listening to Country Music. Little did I know I was being groomed for future plans as a writer/singer. Later as life began to be more prosperous, we buolt a home and moved out of the trailer. Life on the farm taught me many lessons....How to work, how to play, how to hide and how to get hurt. I must have 50 scars from that farm..

I took that experience and grew up. When I turned 18, I went and joined the U.S. Army, where I served as a medic during Desert Storm. I got out alive and went to work for the private sector in various jobs. I moved to NC in 1992 and went to school 40 hours a week while working 40 hours the same week.

Now I am a Detective Sgt. for sheriff's office in NC. I write music and I hope my past will bleed through something I write along the way. I find that writing allows one to express humor and enotion. The combination of the two is in everyone of us, and I just hope to tap into that in my writtings.

Those early years on the farm made the transition from pop-culture kid in suburban Washington DC to Country Music kid a rather easy one to accept. It just took the right Country song to convert me to Country.

That song came one late evening on the barn radio called "You've Got A Lover" by Ricky Skaggs. When I heard that song I was glued to the radio for a chance to hear it again. While waiting I was exposed to Kieth Whitley and teh Bellemy Brothers. As time went on I was finding I liked country music more and more and my taste in music was changed forever.

I would later become involved in the Country Music Industry by way of a stage hand for acts like Joe Diffie, Steve Wariner, Sammy Kershaw, and Clinton Gregory. This brief time I spent with Moutain Productions changed the way I viewed music. It was no longer a listening pleasure, I wanted to be a creator of visions and write something someone else would remember.

Ive been writing ever since. My quest is now to write powerful songs or humorous songs that stand the test of time, while refusing to bend to the non-traditional country in order to do it.

Keep it Traditional I always say. Thats what keeps them coming back.... and thats why country has lasted for over a century.. Write it Traditionally, Play it traditionally and You cant Go Wrong...