Stephen Bennett
About Stephen Bennett
Whether playing his great-grandfather's harp guitar, his 1930 National Steel or a standard 6-string, Stephen Bennett is a musician to hear. His playing has won awards and critical praise. In live performance and on record, his diverse musical influences and interests are joined with a lifelong love affair with the sound of guitar strings.
Carnegie Hall
March 24th, 2025
Hello to all ~ I hope you’re all well. And I thought I’d let you know how my Carnegie Hall appearance went…
Very well would be the short answer! Although I knew that I would be leading the finale – singing and playing What A Wonderful World – I didn’t know where in the show my solo slot would be until Saturday afternoon when I showed up at the venue for all the stuff that needs to happen before a show. Turned out I would be closing out the evening.
I played Miserlou on guitar, and then The Black Gunners and Elephants Dance (with a new middle section) on Big Mama (my great-grandfather’s 1909 harp guitar – now 116 years old). After those tunes, I brought Jason Ji back onstage, along with the string quartet, for the finale.
Many of the members of the stage crew at CH were intrigued by Big Mama. That’s not surprising, of course. People are often intrigued when they see a harp guitar for the first time. Although I’ve been working for decades now towards harp guitarists taking over the world, we’re not there yet. While definitely making strides, it’s slow going – world domination doesn’t happen overnight! What I already knew going in was that I wouldn’t be the first person with a harp guitar to have played CH. A band leader back in the early 20th century named James Reese Europe had a group called the Clef Club which had a couple of harp guitarists in it. I was about to add a link here to my friend Gregg Miner’s blog post about the Clef Club when he just (literally a few minutes ago) published this brand new post:
https://www.harpguitars.net/2025/03/24/harp-guitars-at-carnegie-hall/
That link will give you some photos from Saturday, as well as a sense of the whole show.
It was great fun for me. It won’t surprise you to hear that getting a standing ovation at Carnegie Hall is a wonderful thing for a musician to experience. I now know that firsthand. It’s a wonderful thing indeed!
I didn’t really get to know Gonky (mom’s grandfather whose harp guitar I wound up with in the late 1980s), because he died in 1968 and I’d only ever met him briefly a couple of times. Nonetheless, as a few people have said to me since the show, he’d probably have been quite tickled to know that his instrument had been played on such a storied stage as Carnegie Hall, and by his great-grandson, no less.
There were a number of other wonderful things about the evening as well. That my son Will, and daughter-in-law Erin, came from California to be there with Nancy and I was wonderful. One of Nancy’s dearest friends came to the show from New Hampshire – for her 70th birthday – was great! A bunch of other friends (old and new), neighbors, and family members were able to be there, and that was wonderful too!
Here’s another thing that happened that was truly soul-satisfying: As I walked out of Carnegie Hall to go back to the hotel, I found Will waiting there to help me carry stuff. There were a couple of other guys waiting there as well, waiting to talk to me. One was a black veteran who wanted to thank me for The Black Gunners. If you don’t recall what that tune is about, go find your copy of my CD Still On The Line. The full explanation is there. A very abbreviated version would be that the composition is an homage to the black sailors (and by extension) to all the black and other marginalized members of the armed forces who, when push came to shove, courageously jumped into the breach. As I told the audience on Saturday night, for one example of that, do a quick search for “Doris Miller” and you will see what I am referring to. The Black Gunners came from a very specific set of circumstances that are really quite fascinating. That’s all laid out in the liner notes of the CD I mentioned above.
For me, the bottom line of that encounter with the black veteran was a sign that I had succeeded in doing what I set out to do with that composition. First, to honor those who had been marginalized, and second, in so doing, to hopefully provide a small bit of healing to a very damaged world. A very tiny bandaid indeed, a barely perceptible one perhaps, but it was most assuredly perceived that night. And that means the world to me.
I was told ahead of time that the show would be recorded and that I would get a copy of it for private use. However, a few hours before showtime I was informed by the person who was doing the recording for Jason Ji (who had arranged this show) that there wasn’t enough computer memory available to record everything so I had to choose just one tune. I opted for the finale (What A Wonderful World) that I played with Jason and the terrific string quartet (made up of Danny, Annie, Reed and Cedric). I haven’t received that yet. However, Nancy recorded it with her phone (as did a few others). I will share the version recorded from the mixing board when I get it. Nancy will likely post her version on FB.
Best to all, Stephen
Carnegie Hall!
February 26th, 2025
Yes, the one in NYC. On March 22 I will be the “surprise” guest at this show. I’ll be playing two solo pieces and also closing the show in a duet with Jason Ji. Jason was a finalist at the International Fingerstyle Guitar Championship last September (which some of you may remember that I won). If you would like to attend, feel free to email me (sb@harpguitar.com) for a discount code.
What I did last Thursday…
September 24th, 2024
Someday, I will be rightly thought of a has-been. That day, however, has not yet arrived. I know this because, last Thursday, I won the 2024 International Finger Style Guitar Championship! That contest is held in Winfield, Kansas, a place I’ve been to many times. I first went in 1983 and placed 2nd in the National Flatpicking Championship. Two years later, I placed 3rd in the National Finger Style Guitar Championship. Two years after that (1987), I won the National Flatpicking Championship. I was 31 years old. My recording career started a few weeks after returning home from that contest. A few years later I started getting booked regularly at the festival where the championships take place. Booked performers aren’t eligible to compete and so, other than one year (1995) when I entered the fingerstyle contest and didn’t place (and I absolutely did not deserve to – I played poorly), I haven’t thought much about trying to win the fingerstyle contest again.
Until, that is, one day in early June when I decided that, at the age of 68, I ought to get to it. I’ve long thought that if I was having a good day, I could win the thing. Last Thursday I had a pretty good day! Thirty-seven years after winning the Flatpicking trophy, I won the Fingerstyle contest. As it happens, in the 52 years of the festival, I’m the only person to have won them both.
Incidentally, the name changed from the National – to the International – Finger Style Guitar Championship 20-some years ago. Back in 2004, I performed at a guitar festival in Australia and, while there, helped to judge their fingerstyle contest, the winner of which was guaranteed a spot in the Winfield contest. I went from there to Japan for some shows, and, while there, also judged their contest, the winner of which was Hirokatsu Takei. Hiro also had a guaranteed spot at Winfield. We became good friends and he was invited to perform at the Harp Guitar Gathering™ (a convention for these instruments that I started in 2003) three times*. That September I was back in Winfield again performing and helping to judge there again too. It truly has become an international event – which is what the festival had set out to accomplish. As a very concrete example of that, after I won on Thursday, my trophy was presented to me by Japanese guitarist Momo Kimura, the 2023 winner.
I didn’t enter the contest for the prizes (which are considerable), but simply because I always wanted to prove to myself that I could win it. So, I did! My has-been status will eventually get here, but it will have to wait a while longer…
Congratulations to the 2nd and 3rd place winners, my new friends Mikey Bilello – from Bend, Oregon, and Hiroya Tsukamoto – orginally from Japan and now living in NYC. There was a great spirit of camaraderie among all the contestants this year and that was a great thing. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing some old friends and making some new ones there! Lots of great guitar music!
*Sadly, Hirokatsu Takei passed away a few years ago, onstage in Japan playing his harp guitar when he collapsed. You can hear a tribute to him here.
On The Nature Of Clouds
September 24th, 2024
That’s the name of the harp guitar tune that I composed earlier this year for a compilation put out by my friend Gregg Miner on his Harp Guitar Music label. The theme of the compilation was Clouds. It was released last week on all the usual streaming and downloading platforms – so please stream and download it! And, it’s up for streaming and downloading at Bandcamp.com as well. Here’s the link. Try it, you’ll like it!
SB (Squared) is here!
August 9th, 2024
CD copies of the new album (with my friend Stephen Bennett) arrived today. It will be showing up soon on all the digital platforms as well. You can read all about it at the LINER NOTES FOR SB (SQUARED) page on this website.
If you’d like to get a CD, they’ll be $20 delivered, in the US only as out of country shipping has gotten prohibitively expensive.
Look for it soon on all your favorite streaming platforms! It’s a good album, if I may say so myself!
SB now available on CD
October 28th, 2023
Because people asked for it, I did a small run of CDs for my most recent album (which is entitled SB). If you’d like a copy, send me $20 via PayPal and I’ll send it to you. My address at PayPal is sb@harpguitar.com. If the CD is to be sent somewhere in the US, that is. If you need it to be sent to another country, then send me an email (at sb@harpguitar.com) and we’ll figure it out.
Mr. Zelenskyy
May 18th, 2023
My tune in honor of this rare leader has now been uploaded into the digital distribution network and is now live on several of the various music streaming/downloading platforms in the coming days. As of today, it’s live on Apple Music, Spotify and Amazon Music, as well as on YouTube.
I was joined by my friend Alex Lifeson (from Rush) and also by a drummer and bassist – Ty Dennis and Angelo Barbera, respectively, both of whom were terrific. These three guys added so much! Kim Person did a fantastic job mixing the music. Gregg Lukens was the lead mastering engineer and did a beautiful job as well. To quote my friend with the same name as me, the mix manages “to sound intimate and epic at the same time”. Stephen’s right, it does!
Proceeds from the streaming and downloading of this tune will go to support Ukrainian relief efforts. If you like Mr. Zelenskyy, please help spread the word about it. Some links are below. Thanks!