Stephen Bennett: Harp Guitarist

Neal Risenhoover over at our facebook site recommended that I check out harp guitarist Stephen Bennett. Here’s a song titled “The Wind Cries Mary,” a beautiful composition that is soulfully performed by Stephen.

Neil wrote the following: “We are blessed by so many great guitarists. I’ve seen Doyle and he’s certainly one of the great players out there. I don’t know if there is a greatest, but everyone has a personal favorite. Steven Bennett is my favorite.”

After listening to this video, it’s no wonder why…

And the harp guitar really adds another dimension of sound with the bass strings resonating along with the standard guitar notes.

About Stephen Bennett:

“Stephen Bennett is an extraordinary musician, an acknowledged master of the harp guitar, a challenging teacher, a gifted composer, and a performer of astounding sensitivity. The Toronto Fingerstyle Guitar Association calls him “the Jedi Master of Fingerstyle Guitar”…

Stephen has traveled the world and performed with the best. From California to Maine, Texas to Tennessee, as well as around Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan, Stephen has played all sorts of venues and events. He has released 20 recordings of music, along with a couple of DVDs, books and other instructional materials – and he’s always working on something new!

The testimony of those who hear Stephen 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 one reviewer: “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.”

The producer of a Texas music festival writes, “Stephen’s 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.” more here

About the Harp Guitar (written By Stephen Bennett:

“The harp guitar that started it all for me is a Dyer Brothers symphony harp guitar that belonged to my great-grandmother’s second husband – Edgar Pierce. They were married for 50 years so I think of him as my great-grandfather, even though there’s not actually any blood relation.

He played on Portland, Oregon’s first radio station in a band called the Hoot Owls. He also played in saloons in the Yukon during a gold rush early in the last century. Talk about a tough gig, imagine playing for a bunch of lonely miners in Alaska in 1915 or so; I bet he played whatever requests he was asked to do. Just picture it: some drunk miner asks you to play Misty – you play it, even though it won’t be composed for another twenty years yet!

This harp guitar was built by the Larson Brothers in Chicago. (Dyer Brothers was a chain of music stores that ordered instruments from the Larsons and then put their store label on them). There is a handwritten date of 1909 on the label of mine. For lots of great information about the Larson instruments, please visit a website which features the work of my friend Bob Hartman – LarsonCreations.com.

Another site to visit ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE OR KNOW SOMEONE WHO HAS ONE OF THESE WONDERFUL INSTRUMENTS, REGARDLESS OF ITS CONDITION is The LarsonBrothersRegistry.com

The harp guitar is a wonderful, indeed magnificent, instrument and I feel quite fortunate to have inherited one. It is a regular 6-string guitar with an extended sound chamber arching up out of the top shoulder. There are 6 sub-basses, tuned (descending in pitch from the closest sub-bass to the regular 6th string E) G-D-C-B-A-G. ”  read more

Check out and hear some of Stephen’s music at the Amazon links below…