“...a study in the art of touch, tone, taste and timing. The compositions are exquisitely crafted scores with melodies that carry the listener on dreamy flights of fantasy, up and down the fretboards of various guitars that can only be made to sound the way they do in the hands of Richard Bennett.”
Hey, Howdy and Hi,
Hope every one of you is doing alright and enjoying the warmer weather as spring gives way to summer. My usual apologies for not updating this page more often, but all’s well on this side. It’s t-shirts, shorts and skirt steak marinated in chimichurri grilled on the Weber, season. I still get the same feeling this time of year as I did as a youngster getting out of school for summer vacation and having eternity stretching out in front me. School’s out for summer, school’s out forever.
I’ve done a couple of nice album projects lately, one being for John Lomax III. John’s the grandson of the celebrated folk song collector, archivist and publisher John Avery Lomax and nephew of Alan Lomax. They are well known and remembered for their work in the ‘30s, ‘40s and beyond for The Library of Congress and the many field recording trips to the South recording prison inmates, migrant workers, cowboys, mountaineers and just about anyone who had a song or story to tell and wasn’t intimidated by the microphone. The Lomax’s discovered Lead Belly and Muddy Waters just to name two towering artists. John the third’s father managed Lightnin’ Hopkins and organised the Texas Folklore Society. Lomax III is an old friend, has been an artist manager, music journalist, record distributor and producer. Several years ago he began performing the songs associated with his family. He decided he wanted to make an album of some of these songs and asked if I’d be interested in helping. I felt it was a very worthwhile project and jumped straight in. We recorded very organically, a couple of acoustic instruments and did it in four or five sessions.
Another was a project for Shawn Camp who I’ve admired for a long time. A superb songwriter, singer, guitar, fiddle, mandolin player. I played on an album of his back in 1994 but since that time, for whatever reason, we’ve run in different circles. We reconnected on the above mentioned Lomax project. He’d been flirting with the idea of getting in the studio and making a new album and asked me to be involved. Again, it didn’t take too long to answer yes. Shawn’s got so much music in him and it’s a pleasure to be included.
Also did some session work for renowned producer T Bone Burnett. If you don’t already know who he is, look him up; his credits are too vast to list here. He’s a great record producer and a good guy. I hope to be on some more sessions for him.
Mark Knopfler’s new album One Deep River is out now and getting tremendous reviews. It’s one of the best records he’s made and I’m very proud to be on it and have my name attached. We recorded it back in 2022 and hearing those great songs and playing again was like visiting with old friends. A bonus extended play record was drawn from those sessions as well and released exclusively for Record Store Day last month. It’s called The Boy and consists of four songs about boxing and the show grounds.
MK’s charity single of Going Home has been going great guns as well. The 9+ minute all-star single has 60 guitar players with all benefits going to Teen Cancer Trust and Teenage Cancer America. It’s available in every format imaginable including cassette. Read about it online at Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes.
There is a fine new album out by my friend Sergio “Stratoman” Diab, called Janicetown. Sergio writes and plays big, atmospheric thematic guitar instrumentals and this new album is clearly focused on the wide open west. Each of the 11 songs are themes for movies not yet made. Check him out on Spotify or wherever you stream your music. It’s worth your time.
I’ve one song left to record for my own new album that I seem to have been making forever. One might imagine I’ve run into all kinds of road blocks but that ’s not been the case, it’s just that I so seldom work on it. Anyway, the light is clear and bright at the end of the tunnel now. Depending on manufacturing turn around time, it may be out in autumn or early winter. I was really hoping to have it out this summer as I hear it as a summertime record. Oh well, it’ll simply anticipate the following summer.
A passing of note, we all lost a monumental guitar hero with the death of Duane Eddy on the 30th of April. His influence is far reaching and cannot be overstated. I certainly came under his sway in ways both obvious and subtle. I met Duane when I was 15 years old, still living in Phoenix and working in Forrest Skaggs’ music store. That day Duane treated me as a contemporary and not like the kid that I was. We’ve been friends since, nearly 60 years. I’ve known Duane so long that sometimes it eclipsed who he was. I would often be driving home from a visit and lunch with him and suddenly think…. man, I just had lunch with Duane Eddy! He told me many years ago that he’d finally figured out his place in the scheme of things; he’d taught millions of kids to play guitar. I was one of them. Well, Duane was far more than that, but, it was no exaggeration. Every kid of a certain age who picked up a guitar thought they could play Rebel Rouser, and to a certain extent could. But not like Duane, not by a long shot. As with so many things seemingly simple, there’s always far more to it than meets the ear, eye and ability. Duane Eddy was humble, kind, funny, generous and a great friend to so many of us. He was the last tie to my Phoenix days and all the old places and musicians we both knew. I already miss him more than I can say.
Lastly, I’ve got myself in a great little Hawaiian trio called Volcano Brothers. It’s Steve Dawson on steel guitar, Dave Jacques on string bass and I’m playing ukulele. Hawaiian music of the 1920s and ‘30s was so popular and some astonishing steel guitar virtuosos emerged; Sol Hoopii, Sol K. Bright, Bennie Nawahi, Eddie Bush and others. The best of them incorporated Hawaiian music with jazz of that day and came up with a potent musical cocktail. I learned how to play rhythm guitar playing this music as my guitar teacher, the afore mentioned Forrest Skaggs, was a great steel player. He’d play Hawaiian tunes on steel and I’d back him with rhythm. From the time I was 11 or 12 I’ve had these sounds and songs going through my head and when I began collecting 78 rpm records, I hoovered up every Hawaiian record from that era that I could get my hands on. Steve Dawson is a great multi-instrumentalist who’s taken a deep dive into the genre. He plays a National Tri-Cone acoustic steel, the type that most of the ‘20s players used before the instrument became electrified in the mid-‘30s. Being well familiar with this stuff, I can tell you that Steve plays it just as it should be; he’s great. Dave Jacques is an old studio pal and also played with John Prine for 24 years or so. I’ve always wanted to be in a Hawaiian group going back to my old L.A .days. I used to think about getting a little trio or quartet together and finding a small Chinese restaurant or some place that would let us play once a week. Didn’t happen; I wasn’t very good about organising anything and to be fair I was very busy in the studios and with Neil Diamond. But now this has fallen into my lap and I couldn’t be happier. At 72 it’s never too late, in fact it’s probably an asset. We’ve already played a short set to a roomful of hipsters who were there, no doubt, to hear anything but Hawaiian music. I figured they would at best tolerate us or worse, begin throwing stuff and hurling insults. The place went dead quiet when we started the first song then completely mad at the end… absolutely loved it.
So if you’re going to be in Nashville, our next gig is The Basement on July 1st from 7-8:30. A 10 buck cover will get you a bunch of great music: all Hawaiian hits from the ‘20s and ‘30s.
Aloha ’til next time,
Richard
George W. Harris
January 21, 2019
While making a successful living as the first call guitarist for the likes of Mark Knopfler and Neil Diamond, Richard Bennett has also quietly amassed an impressive catalogue of his own. Classy and understated, his albums are reminiscent of the days when instrumental bands such as The Ventures, The Shadows, Santo and Johnny or Johnny and the Hurricane’s ruled the airwaves in the 50s and 60s. His latest release is a glowing gem, as he calls up his friends on his iphone for a polished and classy read of originals. Bennet plays guitar and steel, adroitly mixing and matching with a string section as well as Roger Spencer/b, Ted Tretiak/dr, Nick Bennett-Andy Reiss/g, spooner Oldham/B3, Lindsay Bennett/p-key, Charlie McCoy/vib, a handful of horns, strings and even VOX.
His guitar voice and style evokes the lyricism of Johnny Smith, as on the warm “No Matter The Odds” and relaxed “This Love Remembered” while he hiply swings on a jazzy “Intermezzo.” Hints of the Everly Brothers are strummed during “Come Summer’s Sun,” Roy Orbison’d nostalgia with horns create a gently dramatic “Dauphine Noir,” and some Duane Eddy twang rockabillies for “Eye For Hire.” Piano and ethereal voice make for a pastoral “Pretty Pillow” with Bennett taking you to the local VFW on the rural “Waltz For A Wayard.” Obviously, he knows how to boogie the blues, and gets juke jointy for “”Bo-Kay,” but for the most part, Bennet takes you to the local lounge of second sets of the night, as on the relaxed “This Side of Truth.” Charming in its gorgeous and elegant simplicity-the more you listen the more you appreciate it. Any chance for So Cal gigs with this band on a night off from Knopfler?
October 29, 2018
A studio veteran with thousands of sessions to his credit, Richard Bennett is also an ace producer and Mark Knopfler’s longtime guitar foil. But to instrumental guitar fanatics, he’s the keeper of the flame for a style of guitar instrumental music that’s been largely forgotten. It emerged in the late ’50s as electric guitar and stereo vinyl first gained popularity, and—until it was swept away by the British Invasion—permeated movie soundtracks and TV themes. For a refresher course, check out Tony Mottola’s Mr. Big (1959) and Al Caiola’s Golden Hit Instrumentals (1961). These guitarists had serious jazz chops, yet embraced twang and tremolo, and made LPs using cutting-edge studio technology of the time.
Which brings us back to Bennett’s Ballads in Otherness. Echoes of these greats, as well as Duane Eddy and the Shadows’ Hank Marvin, resound in the album’s 13 originals. The tunes evoke saguaro, chaparral, and wide-open roads—the call of the West half a century ago. But for me, the most compelling aspect of Bennett’s music is his gift for writing memorable melodies and executing them with ringing, old-school tones and impeccable technique, whether on electric 6-string or sweet steel guitar.
Ballads in Otherness is also filled with superb chord-melody playing—another skill that’s on the brink of extinction. “Al Casey was my good friend and mentor,” Bennett says of the Wrecking Crew guitarist, “my entree into the Hollywood studio world of the swinging ’60s. He opened my ears to people like Barney Kessel, Howard Roberts, and Johnny Smith. The chord-solo pieces are my nod to those guitarists.”
Bennett is a time traveler, bringing vintage instrumental guitar into the 21st century. If you lived through that earlier era, Ballads in Otherness will take you back. But if you’ve never absorbed these sounds, it makes a fabulous introduction.
Must-hear tracks: “Come Summer’s Sun,” “Eye for Hire,” “This Love Remembered”
