Featured Artist, Stephen Bennett
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Featured Artist, Stephen Bennett
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Guitarist Stephen Bennett was born in Oregon, grew up in New York and has lived in Virginia for the last twenty-five years. Since his 1987 win at the National Flatpicking Championship, held in Winfield, Kansas, USA, he has come to be known as a guitar master, one who consistently garners critical praise and audience enthusiasm for his recordings and live performances. He is the only person to ever win awards in both flatpicking and fingerpicking styles in the nearly 30-year history of the National Guitar Championships. |
| His arrangement and performance of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite has been played on radio stations around the United States and is regarded in some quarters as the alternative version. |
| As one of the world's only performers on the too long neglected harp guitar, Stephen has created arrangements of classic tunes and composed new music as well. Three of his harp guitar compositions have been included in compilations on the Narada label, with the latest due out in March of 2001. Three other of his pieces have been licensed by the Bose Corporation. Stephen performs regularly around the US and recently in Europe as well, including a recent performance on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion. |
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| Armed with a standard six-string, an old National steel resonator guitar, his harp guitar, a broad repertoire, and thirty-five years of guitar playing experience, Stephen Bennett engages his audiences with an entertaining show of first-rate musicianship. |
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Selections on this 2001 release are: A Walk on Winkfield Row, River, I Knew It Was You,
The Most Beautiful Sky, Late Last Night, Color Line, Middle-Aged
White Guy Blues, Waltz For A Maple Tree, Little Martha (Stewart),
Run, Cathy Freeman, Run/ Advance Australia Fair, Oregon, Bridget
O'Malley, The Travis Crawl.
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| A new, mostly solo CD. The title tune features Tommy Emmanuel and "Bridget O'Malley" features mandolinist Steve Smith. |
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Selections on this 1998 release are: Winfield, At This Moment, Thorton's Creek, Cry Me
A River, Lysekil, Cape Perpetua, Sea Rose Beach, Old Growth,
Moonlight In Vermont, Lt. Colonel Cloud-Catcher (Ret.), Naima,
Lonesome John, Bridget And Elanor, Walking In The Air, As Time
Goes By.
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| "This is a gorgeous CD..." Mr. Guitar , (publication of the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society). Friend and fellow guitarist Duck Baker suggests that "this might be the world's only all harp guitar recording." |
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Selections on this 1996 release are: 6 AM; Suite for Slavomir; Cornwall; Life's Too Short
(to be in a bad mood); Linda's Garden; The Forest Floor; Black
Rock Shuffle; Karl & August (Socks on a Rooster); The Easy
Winners; Annabel Lee; Kristina; The Star of the County Down;
On the Water; Heliotrope Bouquet; Just a Thought; 2 AM.
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"one of the most listenable CD's you can
find"... The Walnut Valley Occasional (the publication of the National Flatpicking and Fingerpicking Championships) Included in Acoustic Guitar Magazine - Hit List - June 1997. |
"There are a number of 'Nutcracker' recordings - none is more passionate, vibrant or joyous than Stephen Bennett's." George Maida - WCVE, Richmond Public Radio - June 1997 |
Selections on this 1997 release are: Miniature Overture; Danses Caracteristiques - March, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Russian Dance, Arabian Dance, Chinese Dance, Dance of the Reed Pipes, Waltz of the Flowers; God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/'Twas in the Moon of Wintertime; Joy to the World; Silver Bells; In the Bleak Midwinter; Sleighride; Auld Lang Syne.
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