Ben Gallaher Turned a Ballad Into a Rocker for ‘I’ll Take You’

Ben Gallaher is releasing his new single, “I’ll Take You,” on Monday (March 9), but the up-tempo, modern country-rock song that fans will be hearing on country radio is quite different from the original intent of the song.

Who Wrote Ben Gallaher’s “I’ll Take You”?

Top Nashville songwriters Tony Martin, Wendell Mobley and Neil Thrasher originally wrote “I’ll Take You” in 2022, and at that time, it was a ballad under a completely different title.

“It’s a sweet lyric, and it just kinda lent itself to something slow,” Thrasher tells Taste of Country.

“I’ll take you over anybody any day / You like sunshine over rain / Your hand in my hand / Whatever life throws my way / I’ll take you over anybody any day,” the chorus states.

He sent it to Gallaher, with whom he had co-written for years.

“I always loved the song. I felt like it fit me perfectly,” Gallaher reflects. “I probably listened to [the demo] a hundred times.”

How Did Ben Gallaher Come to Cut “I’ll Take You”?

The song sat uncut for a couple of years, and Thrasher returned to it when he was gathering songs for Gallaher’s sophomore album, Time, which he co-produced with his cousin, Patrick Thrasher.

There was just one problem: They were in need of one more up-tempo song for the project, but “I’ll Take You” was paced slower.

“I started thinking, ‘Man, that lyric right there could also be — I wonder what would happen if we started messing with it and turned it into an up-tempo?'” Thrasher relates.

Gallaher made a key contribution to the new arrangement, making a few chord changes and adding a signature lick that repeats throughout the song as an instrumental hook.

When Thrasher brought up the track in the studio, “I started playing that intro guitar riff,” Gallaher recalls.

“It happened so fast and so organically, man,” the Taste of Country RISERS: 2026 Artists to Watch artist adds with a laugh. “It’s like that riff was meant to be melded into ‘I’ll Take You,’ making it up-tempo.”

Choosing the right tempo was a key focus of the recording process.

“It took some time to decide, ‘Where does the lyric sound best fitted?’ Gallaher explains. “Not too fast, where it blows right past you, but enough to where you can’t stop moving your head and stomping your foot.”

Gallaher delivered a raspy, blues-influenced vocal performance that suits the track perfectly, and he also added some very active, but tasteful guitar licks to the track, creating a country-rock hybrid that could be at home across multiple radio formats.

“Ben nailed it,” Thrasher enthuses. “He’s got such a rock edge to his voice.

“One of the most fun parts of tracking Ben was watching him do the guitar overdubs,” he adds. “Sometimes I had to dial him back a little bit. He’d play some crazy guitar solo and I’d say, ‘Let’s cut that in half, make it a little bit more melodic.”

READ MORE: Ben Gallaher Is One of the Best Guitarists in Country Music

They also streamlined some of the chords to suit the new format, and “that thing kinda took on a life of its own, as far as turning into an up-tempo,” Thrasher says.

“It kinda turned itself into it, and turned into this undeniable, up-tempo, positive hit.”

The song’s transformation is so complete that it’s almost like an entirely different song.

“To bring it from what it was to what it is now, it really does take a village,” Gallaher observes.

“I don’t even remember how it goes as a ballad,” Thrasher admits with a laugh. “I’d have to go back and listen to the demo.”

After years of hard work and several previous radio singles, everyone involved is hopeful that “I’ll Take You” will be the song that finally breaks Gallaher into the mainstream.

“I want the world to hear him. I want the world to know who he is. From a talent perspective, but also, what kind of person he is,” Thrasher says.

“What kind of father he is, what kind of husband he is. He’s such a great role model, on top of being a bad–s guitar player. He’s the whole package. He really, really is.”