I'm cheating a little on this one. I've known Ben since long before he had a YouTube channel but I like to promote him whenever I can. I first encountered Ben playing at a Barnes and Nobel bookstore and was instantly a fan. I ran across him a few more times and struck up a conversation. Ben is an amazing fingerstyle guitarist with one of those soft and smokey singing voices that seems to wrap around you before penetrating your soul.
I had the pleasure of recording some demos for Ben when my studio was brand new and barely up to specs for such delicate music but the results were fine for demos. I've included some of those here. Simply put, anything with a vocal was recorded by me.
01 Road to Mallow
02 Sad, Sad, Sad
03 Breaking of the Shells [Billy McLaughlin]
04 Little Beaver [Leo Kottke]
05 Autumn
05 Little Beaver [Leo Kottke]
06 Long December
07 November [Pino Forastiere]
08 Ojo [Leo Kottke]
09 South by Winterwest [Billy McLaughlin]
10 September
11 Sunflower River Blues [John Fahey]
12 Dali
13 Mona Ray [Leo Kottke]
14 Sleepy Time [Alex de Grassi]
15 God Said No
Reality Notes
Ben does not perform very often these days but he is far from idle. He gives guitar lessons online for all levels. He was part of a research team that transcribed every available recording by Leo Kottke. He did release an album around the time I first met him. Sadly that album is out of print. He did give me permission to post it on my Sybil Records blog and site. That link is now dead but I will re-up it eventually, maybe here as well.
The cover is an homage to Ben's first CD which featured a sketch of a tree on the cover. The little caricature in the bottom left corner was drawn by me during one of his performances back in the day.
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