>A performance by Peter Vogl guitar student, Ben Deignan, of his original song "Fault Line". You can find more music by Ben on his bendeignan.com or myspace.View Quicktime video of performance

Bio: Like a crisp fall apple, Georgia native Ben Deignan is picked for pop stardom. The singer/songwriter started playing the family’s six-string at 15, formed various garage bands in junior high and has now blossomed into a 21-year-old funkster with a sound that’s turning heads in clubs around Atlanta and beyond. “A female friend of mine described my music as ‘orgasmic’ and I thought it was clever,” Deignan says. “I never really took it seriously, but for some reason it has stuck.” Sticky is a good thing in a crowded musical universe where the latest flavor is one record flop from obscurity. It was only a few years ago, while playing his dad’s company party at the Tin Roof Cantina in Buckhead, that Deignan was plucked from his own obscurity by an A&R rep for a major record label. That exposure led him to renowned Atlanta-based musician, arranger and vocal producer Jan Smith (Usher, matchbox twenty), who signed Deignan to a development and production deal. Together with production partner Huston Singletary, Smith is helping the fresh-faced Deignan prep his pipes. “This industry is tough and in order to keep your head above water, you have to know the business,” Deignan says. Busy playing gigs and writing songs (“Most of the time it’s in places like the shower or on the highway at three in the morning”), Deignan has a blue-eyed soulful, skatty and softly cranky mood—he cites Bono, Stevie Wonder and The Police among his influences—that sounds like something you’d hear on the radio, only more interesting. Deignan’s routine of vocal exercises and playing covers in seedy college dives is quickly receding in the rearview: He recently recorded an eponymous four-song EP with Smith & Huston Productions, available on iTunes, and he’s gotten more than 30,000 hits on his MySpace player in addition to major label interest. Dealing with the inevitable comparisons, Deignan remains philosophical. “Guys like John Mayer were compared to other artists for along time, too,” he says. “It’s a comfort thing. I find it interesting because alot of people compare me to the sounds of Maroon 5 and Jason Mraz, but I don’t hear anyone compare either one of those artists to each other. Maybe I’m the link between them.”

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