"Autumn of 2001 was trying for many reasons. Sept. 11 was only the biggest of a list of rotten things that happened to friends and acquaintances." TEN is Stephen's response to tragedy and adversity.

Details

Contents

#		Title	Length	Sample
1		America, The Beautiful	3:06
2		City on the Hill	5:11
3		Alpine and Coco	3:24
4		Lady Bird	2:34
5		Flawless	3:37
6		Linda Gets a Brand New Dog	2:41
7		Magic Andrew	4:14
8		Detective Chief Inspector	3:06
9		Via Camuzzoni	3:44
10		Col de Lauteret	3:00
11		Atlanta Blues	4:29
12		Meditation	3:37
13		Going Home	3:07

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Description

The Making of a Guitar Master

What do you get when you take a baby born among Oregonians famous for their independent thinking, raise that child in the multicultural world that is the New York metropolitan area, and then transplant him to a 200-year-old farmhouse in Virginia's Gloucester County? All other things being equal, don't be surprised if you get an outside-the-box thinker with eclectic tendencies and values that run deep.

Put a guitar in his hands somewhere along the way, and you get Stephen Bennett, an extraordinary musician, an acknowledged master on the harp guitar, a challenging teacher, a gifted composer, a performer of astounding sensitivity - - and a genuinely decent human being. All of this, of course, sounds like the sort of thing Steve's mother might write about him. Note, however, it represents the consensus of those who flock to his concerts, fill his classes, and buy his CDs.

Just the Facts, Please
Reared in bedroom communities for New York City, in Rockland and Orange County in the scenic Mid-Hudson Valley, Stephen grew up a Methodist preacher's kid. With a guitar slung across his chest from age twelve on, he headed for college at the State University of New York at New Paltz, transferring shortly to Drew University (Madison, New Jersey) where guitar study took a more formal turn as he began work in classical guitar. Ask him now, however, what really happened at Drew and he'll tell you that it's where he met the love of his life, marine biologist Linda Schaffner.

When Linda's career aspirations led her south to the Virginia Institute of marine Science at William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Steve followed, graduating from William and Mary a few years later with a double major in music and history.

A Funny Thing Happened Along the Way
It happened some years earlier, on a family visit to their hometown, Portland, Oregon, where he discovered the old harp guitar that had belonged to his great-grandfather. The 1909 W. J. Dyer instrument had been sitting pretty much untouched in an uncle's basement for 20 years.

Because of its advanced age and fragile condition, and the reverence in which it was held by his mother's side of the family who had grown up hearing their late grandfather play and sing folk songs and bawdy old saloon tunes, it had been pretty much left alone all that time. Though he didn't know it at the time, Stephen's life took a decisive turn when he was told the harp guitar was obviously meant to be his.

The future of the harp guitar also took a u-turn in that gift. Now acknowledged as a master of the harp guitar and a pioneer in its recovery, Stephen's contributions were recognized by the noted Merrill & Company of Virginia, with their introduction of a new line of harp guitars. The line is called the Stephen Bennett Signature Series Merrill Harp Guitar, and Stephen is the proud owner of the first guitar in the series. It, along with several others he has acquired or had built along the way, means that the original bequest from his great-grandfather, albeit indirectly, can now rest safely at home.

The year 2009 will mark the instrument's hundred year mark and Stephen is planning a special concert tour to celebrate. In 2003, Stephen organized and hosted the world's first convention for the harp guitar - the Harp Guitar Gathering, held in Williamsburg, Virginia, bringing together harp guitar enthusiasts from 14 states and 2 other countries. Now turning into an annual event, the Harp Guitar Gathering means that the future of the harp guitar is now more assured than ever.

Doing It His Way
The next few years saw Stephen biding his time and carefully building a career. There was a lot of local work performing which helped pay the bills. There were the demands of parenting and a twocareer marriage. There was teaching, and plenty of it.

Of course, there was always the work on the old farmhouse, the vegetable garden in the spring, upkeep on the plot of land that ran back to Severn Creek, meandering toward the York River. There was also time to think and to create - - and always there was practicing, practicing, practicing. Out of it came two events that set Steve on his way: winning big at the Walnut Valley Festival, the only contestant to win awards at both the flatpicking and fingerpicking contests in the event's thirty-year history, and the release of The Nutcracker Suite for Guitar Orchestra, Steve's version of Tschaikovsky's beloved Christmas masterpiece.

Summing It Up
Stephen has traveled the world and performs with the best. Several times a year with Tommy Emmanuel, with Pat Donohue, and on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion. He's a featured performer at the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society Convention in Nashville, and has made guest appearances at Muriel Anderson's All Star Guitar Night at the Ryman Auditorium. Across this country, from Oregon to Maine, Texas to Michigan. The last six years have taken him to Europe - - Holland, Belgium, France, Italy and Germany - - as well as Australia and Japan. A video of Steve
playing on, and talking about, the harp guitar has been produced, as have a dozen or more CDs, and there's always another one in process!

Want to know more about what makes Bennett tick?

The Musical World, the Musical Life
Special Places on Steve's Map

Ever heard of Sea Rose Beach? Probably not. It's a little beach nestled between big rocks along the Oregon Coast, six miles south of Yachats and fourteen miles north of Florence. You've probably never heard of them, either - - but they bookend the stretch of Highway #101 where his greatgrandparents lived in their retirement years, and where Steve's family still vacations. Enter "Sea Rose Beach" into Google.com's search engine and it leads you to Stephen Bennett. That's because, once Steve discovered the real Sea Rose Beach as an adult, in contrast to the one revered of family lore, it was inevitable that it would end up in his music. Ask those who hear it in his concerts, title unannounced, and they will tell you that they hear the sounds of the ocean.

That's because his music invokes an uncanny sense of place - - whether it's "Sea Rose Beach" or its sister tune, "Oregon", or walking along "Winkfield Row" on his way from his hotel to friend Tommy Emmanuel's house or along "Via Camuzzoni", his first walk in Italy after getting off the plane, where he says he "immediately started to sense the long history of the place and the spirits of peoples past rising into my awareness." Surely, among his most evocative compositions is "Issoudun", a small French town south of Paris, the site of an annual guitar festival.

New York offers its own special places. Cornwall, where he grew up, inspired "Cornwall", in part a tribute to the Hudson Valley town, in part for old friend and first music teacher, Elissa Zahn.

There's Storm King Mountain, where his late father's ashes were scattered and where, a year later, a bird perched on a nearby branch and sang; "I Knew It Was You" was the musical result - - and "Adirondack Lullaby" which grew out of a sunset on the shore of Racquet Lake during a family camping expedition in the mountains of upstate New York.

The People that People Stephen's World

Be careful around this man. You might end up in his music - - for good or for ill! He studies the world around him, including those who cross his path, and musical bouquets are there for those who touch his soul. There's his wife, Linda ("Little Martha Stewart" or "Linda Gets A Brand New Dog" or "Linda's Garden" or "Linda"), of course, and son Will ("Baby Boy", "Burnside"), right there at home. There's the 15-year-old Italian magician who entertained Steve on the train from Genoa to Verona ("Magic Andrew") and "Detective Chief Inspector" for Amanda Emmanuel, Tommy's daughter.

A casual encounter with an elegantly seedy stranger in the lobby of an El Paso hotel inspired "Flawless." Upon hearing the news of the death of guitar legend Chet Atkins, he immediately reached for his guitar and, he says, "A Meditation" is what came out.

It is his music that helps him deal with the losses in his life, leading to "Late Last Night," "I Knew It Was You," "Bear's Rag," "Tuesday Blues" and even "The Swingset," in which he ponders his own mortality, noting that "everything falls apart - - including me" Add in the poignant "Remember," which calls for recollection of "all those things that are important - - the way one of your old dog's ears always hung a little funny, to tell people you love them, the meaning of Memorial Day . . . "

Meeting one family alone resulted in seven tunes, as Stephen composed, over the course of a few years, music for each of the extraordinary Tom girls ("Hannah", "Faith's Waltz", "I Believe", " C is For Cloe", "Libby's Tune", "Xenia", "Etude for Katie").

Clear in his condemnation of the terrorists responsible for September 11 in his notes on "City on the Hill", Stephen referred to them as "those who would like to go back a thousand years. - - may they rot in whatever hell they can imagine." And he's not above a political swipe in the same notes at "my fellow Virginians, Reverends Pat and Jerry . . . may they fade into oblivion."

The Things That Matter in His Life

Beyond the people and places that matter in Steve's life, there are the issues that matter to him and that consistently show up in his music. There's "Waltz for A Maple Tree," the story of a huge old oak on a route he travels often, taken down to make way for a drugstore parking lot, and "Color Line" about our ugly racism that is still alive and well. The nobility and triumph of "Run, Cathy Freeman, Run/Advance Australia Fair" is moving, as are "The Powhatan Suite" - dedicated to the first inhabitants of North America, and the "Suite for Slavomir." The latter draws on the gripping story of the 26-year-old Polish cavalry lieutenant told in The Long Walk, who was captured by the Soviets in 1941, imprisoned for spying for the Germans, escaped in the middle of Siberian winter and traveled thousands of miles on foot out of Siberia, across China, the Gobi Desert, Tibet, and over the Himalayas into British India. Particularly moving is his "America the Beautiful," his tribute to" all that we are and all that we strive to be," even as he recognizes that this nation is not without its flaws.

But if he cares deeply about such issues, it is balanced by a hearty sense of humor which breaks out often, to the delight of his fans, in such favorites as "Bad Dog" and "Balcony Boogie" - - or when he laughs at himself, as in "Middle-Aged White Guy Blues."

So, What's Unique about Stephen Bennett?

The testimony of concert-goers is that his work is the product of both mind and heart, intellectually challenging and emotionally satisfying - - and it is deeply personal, even as it is universal. Listeners have a feeling that they have stepped into the world of the musician, and for a short moment in time,
there are only the two of them there.

Says reviewer Kim Korman Brown, with the World Community Network in Norfolk, Virginia, "With his ear near the body of the harp guitar, Mr. Bennett gave the impression of a father cradling a newborn baby . . . His performance was imbued with heart and grace." Joe Morgan, producer of a Texas Guitar Festival, writes, "His music . . . draws the listener in. He has the ability to make you feel as though you are a part of the music he is making. There are many amazing guitar players that are not able to make that statement. . . . he's also one of the nicest people I've ever known. That comes through in his music as well."

Want to know what his fans say?

About the Performer

Joe Morgan, (producer of a Texas music festival), sums Stephen up as a guitar players' guitar player. "A few years ago he was playing an afternoon set on Stage 3 at Winfield,: he relates, "which was set up so that the entrance to the backstage area was just to the left of the stage. This meant the audience could see who was coming and going from the backstage area. You could see the previous acts leaving the stage area and you could see the next acts arriving - - all while the current act is performing. Stephen was about three or four tunes into his set when I noticed that the guitar player from the previous act had come out to watch him. So had the guitar player from the act following Stephen. In fact, four or five of the players booked at the festival had come out from backstage to watch his set. They could have just been killing time, but from the way they were watching him, grinning and shaking their heads, it was obvious that they were as amazed as the rest of us. He's
that good." -Joe Morgan 1/11/03

"Stephen Bennett is a world class guitarist! He is a virtuoso player on the six-string guitar and the harp guitar. He is an important part of our Chet Atkins Appreciation Society Convention every year in Nashville. He is a wonderful composer and arranger, and I am sure you will be amazed at his music! Mark Pritcher, President, Chet Atkins Appreciation Society, 12/9/02

"He has come to be known as an acoustic guitar master . . . Bennett offers a variety from fiercely flat-picked fiddle tunes, to delicate fingerstyle arrangements of anything from the Beatles to Tchaikovsky, with thoughtful expression, melodic inventiveness, and impeccable control over the
instrument." -Walnut Valley Reviews, 2002

"Bennett plays in an insistently expressive manner with a precise, vigorous attack and flawless timing. . . He bends, stretches and wrings out simple, direct melodies on the ballads and can fire off convoluted phrases that string together all manner of syncopated, hammered-on and pulled off single
notes, harmonics and crosspicked arpeggios on diminished runs, chromatic scales and suspended major and minor ninth chords on the faster tunes."
-Walnut Valley Reviews, 1989

"Count me a fan. It's amazing to me that the man can produce so many beautiful notes without obviously moving his fingers. I am mesmerized. I love Stephen's stage presence. He's a consummate musician and gentle humorist who's sensitive and accessible to his audience. He can play a piece so poignantly that there are audible sniffles throughout the hall, then with just a subtle shift in tempo and some tricky fingering he can make us all chuckle - - a musician magician. And he's right: under certain stage lights his hair does look a little gray. Simply amazing.
-J. Holley Watts, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, 11/15/02

About the Composer/Arranger
"His own compositions are great, and his arrangements of well-known tunes are refreshing, full of new ideas; it seems as if he has composed these songs anew."
- Bernd Weber, German guitar festival promoter, 11/28/02

"His compositions are so beautiful, filled with great emotion and great sensitivity. He is one of those musicians who serve the music, and only the music."
-Regis Yagoubi, President, Guitar Picking Association, Douai, France

"His original compositions are pieces of real art. When you become familiar with them, you feel the best addiction you can ever feel: you can't leave them behind. You need to keep them with you as good companions who help you walk through your days with that positive attitude that lets you face life as something that's always worth the living."
-Pierpaolo Adda, Music Journalist and festival promoter, Italy, 11/18/02

About the Teacher
"The DVFJA hosted one of its best workshops with the awesomely talented Stephen Bennett . . ."
-DVGFA, 2002

"Stephen is a wonderful, gifted performer and a great teacher. All the members of the guitar workshop which Stephen led before the concert said that they never had learned so much, so many interesting and helpful things, in one afternoon.
-Bernd Weber, Germany, 11/28/02

About the Person
"Stephen is our Virginian on the border. He brings the tradition of his art to a world receptive to the sound of his music and the world of the guitar. That his guitar adds yet a new dimension to this home of the Mariachi, the corrido and the guitaristas is his gift to us. That he was here with us when the bombing began in Afghanistan and he chose to open his set with the national anthem has bonded him to us and to this region forever . . We kinda think a lot of the guy, in case you can't tell."
-Virginia Ness, Arts Director, Chamizal National Memorial, El Paso, Texas, 11/19/02

"He's known for his stage presence and sense of humor as much as his amazing guitar skills."
- Seacoast Guitar Society, 3/11/01

"Stephen has a wonderful sense of humor and made the room feel like it was on a magic carpet ride."
-Delaware Valley Fingerstyle Guitar Association, 2002

'I was scheduled to fly to Kansas the following day to perform at the Walnut Valley Acoustic Music Festival but found my flight canceled in the wake of this terrible tragedy. I was finally able to catch a flight when service resumed and walked onto the stage at midnight on Friday. I quickly came to realize that people need music and that what musicians do is important. Our job is to bring beauty to people's ears and hearts. Other artists perform a similar task in other ways. This is not a trivial pastime or a self-centered pursuit. A good musical performance is an inclusive experience shared by the artist and the listener.'"
From an interview in Chesapeake Style, 2001

"The first time I heard Stephen's music was at Issoudun. I was very impressed by the musicality of his work with the guitar. Some years later I had the opportunity to meet him at our guitar festival in Douai. I was very happy to meet the guitarist, but I also met a really good man, always close to you, always listening to you, always thinking how to give something good to you through his heart and his music. I have learned so much from Stephen!
-Regis Yagoubi, President, Guitar Picking Association, Douai, France, 11/21/02

"When I first heard him playing a few years ago in Issoudun, I felt like I had been pushed into a different world, where the lost emotions come back to your heart and make it beat in a different way. What Stephen can do, and few artists have this gift, is to speak directly to your heart and to move your best feelings! I consider Stephen a great musician and a real friend."
Pierpaolo Adda, Music Journalist, Italy, 11/18/02