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.
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Still Got It Double LPs are here!
November 19th, 2025
This album went onto the digital streaming/downloading platforms early in September. The CDs arrived shortly after that. Two days ago the double LP showed up. I think they look great! My friend Bill Allen created the prints that my friend Sean de Burca then incorporated into the graphics you see here. There’s a photo of the inside of this album at the end of this post.
It contains all the music from the CD plus a remixed version of my tune Who Knew A Man Of Honor Would Be So Hard To Find. Why the remix? Because my friend Alex Lifeson (yes, that guy) played on this track. He wound up too far back in the mix when this tune was first released (on my album titled SB which was released in 2023). Alex contributed a cool textural element to this tune and I think that when Kim Person originally mixed it, she didn’t quite get it. I slipped up and didn’t explain it well enough and so that part wound up, as I said above – too far back in the mix. The tune went out into the world. But it kept bugging me so I decided a remix was needed. This time I explained it to Kim something like this: yes, Alex’s part is a little unsettling, I know. However – we live in unsettling times and that was the point of what he contributed to the tune. Rather than making it lower in the mix, let’s try embracing it. This is clearly what I should have said two years ago. When the music got mixed this time, Kim was all in. Where Alex had originally faded his part out before the tune ended, this time Kim wanted more of it. So not only did we increase the level of his part, now there’s also more of it. She tweaked some of my electric guitar parts as well, and the end result is that we now have a much better mix than the original (which wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t quite what I thought it should be).
I used 180 gram vinyl, not the flimsy stuff.
You can see the liner notes for this double LP here:
If you would like a copy, they are $50 if you get one in person. If you need one shipped to you, then $55 will cover it for the continental US. I’ll have to check on shipping for Alaska and Hawaii. Since international shipping is a complete pain in the rear end these days, sorry, I can’t do it.
I will also throw in a copy of my Powhatan Suite LP that was recorded by an orchestra in Germany some years back. Being my own worst critic, that project didn’t turn out exactly as I’d hoped (for reasons almost entirely having to do with the first track), but I have received several correspondences lately from people who just happened upon this album that reminded me that there is much to love on it!
Other than coming to a show and getting a copy from me directly, you could get a copy in one of these three ways:
1) Send me a check for $55 (made out to me and sent to 22 Old Route 7, West Cornwall, CT, 06796). If you’re in Connecticut, please add 6.35% sales tax.
2) Send $55 to me via PayPal (my address there is sb@harpguitar.com). Please use the Friends & Family option. If you’re in Connecticut, please add 6.35% sales tax.
3) Send $55 to me via Venmo (@Stephen-Bennett-175). If you’re in Connecticut, please add 6.35% sales tax.
Still Got It
September 4th, 2025
You can hear my latest album on all the digital platforms.
If you would like a CD, you can get it by sending me $20 via the three methods below:
1) PayPal – my address there is sb@harpguitar.com
2) Venmo – my address there is also sb@harpguitar.com
3) if you want to send me a check, email me at sb@harpguitar.com and I’ll give you the address. That includes shipping in the US. Between the high cost and the paperwork, shipping outside of the US has gotten so out of hand that I’m not doing it anymore.
And if you want to see what’s on the album, you can read the liner notes here on this site. Thanks!
New album coming soon!
August 19th, 2025
Here’s the cover. Bill Allen created the prints that appear inside the CD jacket and accompanying booklet, as well as here on the cover. Sean de Burca did the graphic design. I think it looks great!
Besides getting some CDs, I’m also ordering some double LPs which will contain the 14 tracks from the CD as well as one additional track that I wanted to remix from my album SB, released in 2023. I guess I’ll be finding out if there really is a resurgence of vinyl. And, of course, the music will go out onto the streaming platforms as well.
I am awaiting for the audio mastering to finish up and then it’s just the manufacturing process that remains.
September shows
August 4th, 2025
I’m looking forward to being onstage again at the Walnut Valley Festival (in Winfield, Kansas – Sep. 17-21). I think it’s my 25th time as part of the festival lineup.
And I’ll be the feature act at Twelve Moons Coffeehouse on Sep. 6th, just a few miles up the road from where I live. I start at 8 PM at the Center On Main in Falls Village, Connecticut. Come on out!
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!