Benjamin Horace “Benny” Williams (b. March 28, 1931 – October 11, 2007) was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 bluegrass

Bluegrass music

Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...

 musician

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

. A multi-instrumentalist

Multi-instrumentalist

A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...

, he sang and played fiddle

Fiddle

The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...

, guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, banjo

Banjo

In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...

, autoharp

Autoharp

The autoharp is a musical string instrument having a series of chord bars attached to dampers, which, when depressed, mute all of the strings other than those that form the desired chord. Despite its name, the autoharp is not a harp at all, but a chorded zither. -History:There is debate over the...

, and mandolin

Mandolin

A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...

. He played fiddle in Bill Monroe's

Bill Monroe

William Smith Monroe was an American musician who created the style of music known as bluegrass, which takes its name from his band, the "Blue Grass Boys," named for Monroe's home state of Kentucky. Monroe's performing career spanned 60 years as a singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader...

 band and with such notables as Mac Wiseman

Mac Wiseman

Malcolm B. Wiseman , better known as Mac Wiseman, is an American bluegrass singer, nicknamed The Voice with a Heart. The bearded singer is one of the cult figures of bluegrass....

, Reno & Smiley

Reno and Smiley

Reno and Smiley were a musical duo composed of Don Reno and Red Smiley. They were one of the most acclaimed duos in country music of the 1950s and early '60s.-How They Met:...

, The Stanley Brothers

The Stanley Brothers

The Stanley Brothers were an American bluegrass duo made up of brothers Carter and Ralph Stanley.-Biography:Carter and Ralph Stanley hailed originally from Dickenson County, Virginia. The family soon moved to McClure, Virginia where their parents worked a small farm in the Clinch Mountains...

, Flatt & Scruggs

Foggy Mountain Boys

The Foggy Mountain Boys were an influential bluegrass band founded by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs in 1948, shortly after leaving Bill Monroe’s band. They recorded and performed together up until 1969.-Biography:...

, Grandpa Jones

Grandpa Jones

Louis Marshall Jones , known professionally as Grandpa Jones, was an American banjo player and "old time" country and gospel music singer...

, Jimmy Martin

Jimmy Martin

Jimmy Martin was an American bluegrass musician, known as the "King of Bluegrass".-Early years:Born James H. Martin in Sneedville, Tennessee. Jimmy Martin was born into the hard farming life of rural East Tennessee. He grew up near Sneedville, singing in church and with friends from surrounding...

, Kitty Wells

Kitty Wells

Ellen Muriel Deason , known professionally as Kitty Wells, is an American country music singer. Her 1952 hit recording, "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels", made her the first female country singer to top the U.S. country charts, and turned her into the first female country star...

 & Johnny Wright

Johnny Wright

Johnny Wright, born August 17, 1960 in Hyannis, Massachusetts, is an American music manager.He has managed groups including New Kids on the Block, the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, the Jonas Brothers, Menudo, and solo acts such as Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Stevie Brock, and...

, Stonewall Jackson

Stonewall Jackson (musician)

Stonewall Jackson is an American country singer and musician who achieved his greatest fame during country's "golden" honky tonk era in the 1950s and early 1960s.-Early years:...

, and Marty Robbins

Marty Robbins

Martin David Robinson , known professionally as Marty Robbins, was an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist...

. He was a recipient of the IBMA Pioneers of Bluegrass award.

Career

Williams appeared playing banjo on The Porter Wagoner

Porter Wagoner

Porter Wayne Wagoner was a popular American country music singer known for his flashy Nudie and Manuel suits and blond pompadour. He introduced the young Dolly Parton near the beginning of her career on his long-running television show, and they were a well-known duet throughout the late 1960s and...

 Show playing "Foggy Mountain Breakdown

Foggy Mountain Breakdown

"Foggy Mountain Breakdown" is a bluegrass music instrumental by the bluegrass artists Flatt and Scruggs. It is a standard in the bluegrass repertoire. Banjo players consider the ability to deliver a convincing rendition of this piece the mark of an intermediate-level banjo player...

". He joined Wagoner's in-house band, the Wagonmasters, as guitarist where he played fingerstyle

Fingerstyle guitar

Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking ....

, with fingerpicks

Fingerpick

A fingerpick is a type of plectrum used most commonly for playing bluegrass style banjo music. Most fingerpicks are composed of metal or plastic. Unlike flat guitar picks, which are held between the thumb and finger and used one at a time, fingerpicks clip onto or wrap around the end of the fingers...

. He started out with Mac Wiseman in Virginia and then joined the Tennessee Cut-Ups. He joined the Bluegrass Boys in 1961, first playing guitar but switched to fiddle. He sang lead vocal on a recording of "Cotton Fields

Cotton Fields

"Cotton Fields" is a song written by blues musician Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly who made the first recording of the song in 1940.-Early versions:...

" and played fiddle on numerous tracks in that and the subsequent year. He continued working with Wiseman and playing banjo and mandolin.

View of colleagues

Fellow Blue Grass Boy Doug Hutchens commented,

“Benny was one of the three real utility Blue Grass Boys ... that could and do about anything include work on the bus. The first time I saw him was in the late 60′s just before Kenny Baker returned to the band, Benny was playing fiddle with his right hand bandaged where he had got it caught in the fan on the bus the day before. His main instrument was fiddle but could play banjo, bass and guitar as well...
Benny was a quiet and unassuming man and preferred to be the sideman and made many a country entertainer’s song sound right.”

Discography

• Legend of Bill Monroe and More Bluegrass (Benny Williams compilation)
• Bill Monroe - Bluegrass 1959-1969 CD
• Music Of Bill Monroe CD (vocals, fiddle)
• Porter Wagoner - Rca Country Legends CD
• Porter Wagoner - Rca Country Legends CD (vocals, guitar)

Legend of Bill Monroe and More Bluegrass

An album titled Legend of Bill Monroe and More Bluegrass was engineered from old cassette tape recordings and made available through Scott Morgan's Morgan Stringed Instruments on CD

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

. Williams enjoyed a long-time collaboration with Scott's father Tom Morgan, himself an IBMA Hall of Fame inductee. On this album, Benny plays fiddle on “Never Again” and “The Legend of Bill Monroe" and banjo on "Soldier's Joy

Soldier's Joy

Soldier's Joy is a historic home located at Wingina, Nelson County, Virginia, USA. It was built in 1784-85 by Col. Samuel Jordan Cabell and enlarged approximately twenty-five years later. Along with Bon Aire and Montezuma, it is one of the few remaining Cabell family houses in Nelson County...

". On other tracks he plays cross pick mandolin and Travis -tyle guitar.

Styles and instruments played

Benny Williams played in numerous styles:

• Bnajo: old time, blue grass, drop thumb
• Country and western fiddle variations: twin fiddle; triple fiddle
• Guitar: falt pick; finger style; Travis picking
• Mandolin: Cross pick
• Upright bass
• Vocals: Back up, lead. Could imitate 'most any country singer.

External links

• Benny Williams The Legend of Bill Monroe Tall Pines - Benny Williams with The Morgans (Original Country Gentlemen member - Tom Morgan on guitar