Fact is, long before he arrived in Nashville, Ben, a young and happily married father of four, was already a very successful businessman in the brutally competitive timber, trucking, and renewable energy industries.

All of these wonderful threads find their way into each and every track on Ben’s albums Montana In The Spring and Giddy Up Truck, and so does his love and passion for the traditional country of artists like Hank Snow and Hank Williams.

“One of the songs on Montana In The Spring is called `Log Truck,’ ” Ben says in a conversation in mid-February just a stone’s throw from Music Row.

“My Dad drove a log truck a lot,” Stillwater continues. “That song is pretty much an afternoon conversation that I heard several times from my Dad. His stories always intrigued my creative thoughts.”

Ben is one of very few Row artists who still telephones and speaks with both his Mom and Dad each and every day.

“My Dad’s father left when Dad was 6, so my Dad was raised by a rancher in the foothills of Montana,” Ben says. “So my Dad was left alone, and he was left to his own creative abilities to be a man.”

Ben’s Dad began logging at age 16. Ben followed in his father’s footsteps.

When Ben was young, the logging and timber industry in Montana became complicated by environmental and other issues, so his Dad moved the family to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, which Ben loved. But like his father, deep down he longed to return to Montana.

“I grew up loggin’ and cuttin’ timber and runnin’ sawmills,” he said. “When I got a little older I bought some trucks, and when I turned 18 I went back to Montana.”

Like another musical hero, the late Chris LeDoux, on the weekends Stillwater competed in the Rodeo, where he earned several buckles in the intense, dangerous Bareback competition.

During the week, he was far from the roar of the Rodeo crowd.

“I lived in the mountains, cutting timber, a lot of times 60 or 70 miles from any town,” he said. “You live up there by yourself. I liked it, but you only like it as far as time would allow.”

When he had enough of the solitary existence at age 21, Ben found the love of his life, married her, and began a family and another happy chapter of his life. Fatherhood is another tough job that agrees a great deal with Ben Stillwater.

“Some people go to college or school to get established in life,” he says. “Some people get it from life. It’s a little bit of a different style, and when you’re raised in the country you admire all of these things.”

He’s also had a lifelong admiration of country music, especially the traditional stylings of artists like Hank Snow, Don Williams, and Hank Williams. Some current country leaves him cold.

But fans and listeners have immediately taken a shine to Ben’s fresh, exciting music, which incorporates a strong downbeat Stillwater calls “The Sound Of Country Rhythm” that gives even his ballads a strong, radio-friendly groove.

Not long after arriving here, Ben was walking across a parking lot after a Writers’ Night when a stranger approached him to talk about his music.

That man turned out to be Paul Jones, who now Ben’s co-host and co-producer on “The Classic Country Radio Show” on WLIJ in Shelbyville.

The popular program combines beloved country, Gospel, and Bluegrass music, and occasionally features a special guest.

“We had Charlie Louvin on there not long before he passed,” Ben says. “Charlie was sick, but he was really good. We did two separate, interview-type shows with him.”

While many artists work their whole career to get to radio, Stillwater’s own experience there has taught him a great deal about the other side of the DJ’s microphone.

“It teaches you that you’ve gotta be creative, you’ve gotta have that vein,” he said. “It also teaches you how to lay out and format a show, and to have something come together for the listeners.”

So just as Ben Stillwater has done in every new and challenging situation his entire life, he’s now experiencing country radio and Nashville first-hand, succeeding wonderfully at both, and delighting his fast-growing army of fans, listeners, and radio country programmers every step of the way.