Country up-and-comer Ballard to play Cincinnati

How to Go

What: Frankie Ballard

Where: Bogart’s, 2621 Vine St., Cincinnati

When: Dec. 18, 7 p.m.

Cost: $28.27

More Info: 513-872-8801 or www.bogarts.com.

If you look at the track list and spot the song, “Don’t Tell Mama I Was Drinking,” on up-and-coming country singer Frankie Ballard’s second album, “Sunshine & Whiskey,” you might assume it was humorous. In reality, it’s a somber ballad about the last request of a drunk driver dying on the road after an accident. His reason? “I can’t leave this world with her thinking I met the Lord with whiskey on my breath.”

“That’s an old song, written by an old-school writer named Kim Williams,” said Ballard, who will be playing Bogart’s in Cincinnati this weekend. “I thought it was very moving and it was just sitting on the shelf. It was too good to sit there. I had to dust it off.”

Ballard’s big break came in 2007 at 24 years old, when Kenny Chesney brought his “Next Big Star Competition” to Ballard’s native Michigan. Ballard won the competition, and was rewarded by opening for Chesney for a couple of shows.

“I was just playing in bars before that,” he said. “To go from playing before 100 people to 30,000 people was intimidating but also exciting. It gave me the confidence to try my hand at the next level.”

Currently signed to Warner Bros. Records, Ballard’s first two singles from “Sunshine & Whiskey,” — “Helluva Life” and the title track — have reached No. 1 on the U.S. Country Airplay Charts.

“I’m just trying to make the best music I can make,” Ballard said. “You never know what’s going to happen until you put it out there. The singles from my first album just did ok. But it’s unbelievable now. It’s a dream come true. I know it’s a cliché, but I feel like we have some momentum.”

Most of Ballard’s work isn’t nearly as dark and tragic as “Don’t Tell Mama I Was Drinking.” Indeed, it showcases fairly familiar rock/country themes: Love and lust in a small, all-American town, driven either by a slow acoustic or a hard-driving electric guitar.

“I’m a young guy and I sing about things that are happening in my life and in the lives of the people around me, family and friends,” he said. “The key to success is to be as honest as you can in the music you write. If you mashed up old-school country, Allman Brothers, Bob Seger, and Stevie Ray Vaughan into a frying pan, you’d have what I do. I hope it’s something people can distinguish sonically.”