Buster Benton was an American blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 guitarist and singer, who played guitar in Willie Dixon

Willie Dixon

William James "Willie" Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. A Grammy Award winner who was proficient on both the Upright bass and the guitar, as well as his own singing voice, Dixon is arguably best known as one of the most prolific songwriters...

's Blues All-Stars, and is best known for his solo

Solo (music)

In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...

 rendition of the Dixon-penned song "Spider in My Stew." He was tenacious and in the latter part of his lengthy career, despite the amputation of parts of both his legs, Benton never stopped playing his own version of Chicago blues

Chicago blues

The Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois, by taking the basic acoustic guitar and harmonica-based Delta blues, making the harmonica louder with a microphone and an instrument amplifier, and adding electrically amplified guitar, amplified bass guitar, drums,...

.

Biography

Arley Benton was born in Texarkana, Arkansas

Texarkana, Arkansas

As of the census of 2000, there were 26,448 people, 10,384 households, and 7,040 families residing in the city. The population density was 830.5 people per square mile . There were 11,721 housing units at an average density of 368.1 per square mile...

.

Whilst residing in Toledo, Ohio

Toledo, Ohio

Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...

, during the mid 1950s, and having been influenced by Sam Cooke

Sam Cooke

Samuel Cook, , better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and...

 and B.B. King, Benton began playing blues music. By 1959, he was leading his own band

Musical ensemble

A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...

 in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

. During the 1960s, local record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

s, such as Melloway, Alteen, Sonic, and Twinight Records

Twinight Records

Twinight Records was a minor American recording label, founded in Chicago 1967 by Howard Bedno and Peter Wright, who later added E. Rodney Jones as a partner. Specializing in R&B and soul music, for a few months the label was called Twilight Records until it was discovered that another company...

 released several Benton singles

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

, before in 1971 he joined Willie Dixon. Indeed, a lack of opportunity in the early 1960s meant that Benton gave up playing professionally for several years, and he worked as an auto mechanic

Auto mechanic

An auto mechanic is a mechanic with a variety of car makes or either in a specific area or in a specific make of car. In repairing cars, their main role is to diagnose the problem accurately and quickly...

. Benton's earlier work was an amalgam of blues and soul

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

, which he confusingly dubbed 'disco blues'. However, according to Music journalist

Music journalism

Music journalism is criticism and reportage about music. It began in the eighteenth century as comment on what is now thought of as 'classical music'. This aspect of music journalism, today often referred to as music criticism , comprises the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of...

, Bill Dahl, "in the late 1970s, when the popularity of blues music was at low ebb, Benton's recordings, particularly for Ronn Records, were a breath of fresh air."

Benton became a fixture in Dixon's Blues All-Stars for some time. A 1973 album by Dixon's Blues All-Stars, featuring Benton, The All Star Blues World Of Maestro Willie Dixon and his Chicago Blues Band, was issued on Spivey

Spivey Records

Spivey Records was a specialist blues record label founded by blues singer Victoria Spivey and jazz historian Len Kunstadt in 1961. Spivey Records released a series of blues and jazz albums between 1961 and 1985.- History of Spivey Records :...

.

Dixon was credited as the songwriter of Benton's best known song, "Spider in My Stew." Released on the Shreveport-based Jewel Records

Jewel Records (Shreveport record label)

Jewel Records was a record label founded in 1963 by Stan Lewis and based in Shreveport, Louisiana. It had two subsidiary labels, Paula and Ronn. The first of many retail record stores, called Stan's Record Shop, was opened in 1948...

 label, it gave Benton a modicum of fame, and his 1974 follow-up, "Money Is the Name of the Game", helped to cement his standing. Benton's 1978 effort for Jewel's Ronn Records subsidiary (also titled Spider in My Stew) became recognised as one of the more engaging Chicago blues albums of its time.

Benton recorded three further albums on the Ichiban

Ichiban Records

Ichiban Records was a hip hop record label founded in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1985. Wrap Records and Nastymix Records were some of its subsidiary labels. Urgent! Records was distributed by Ichiban. Most of its discography is now out of print. Besides hip hop groups, Ichiban also released albums by...

 label, but in comparison to his work on the Ronn label, they were uncommercial. One such LP offering was 1989's, Money's The Name of The Game, produced

Record producer

A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

 by Gary B.B. Coleman

Gary B.B. Coleman

Gary B.B. Coleman was an American soul blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and record producer.Originally a local-musician turned-blues promoter and session musician, Coleman recorded his debut album in 1986, which was re-released on Ichiban Records...

. Benton also issued a record

Gramophone record

A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

 on the Blue Phoenix label. Benton's fortitude did not go unnoticed. He suffered from the effects of diabetes

Diabetes mellitus

Diabetes mellitus, often simply referred to as diabetes, is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood sugar, either because the body does not produce enough insulin, or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced...

 and received dialysis

Dialysis

In medicine, dialysis is a process for removing waste and excess water from the blood, and is primarily used to provide an artificial replacement for lost kidney function in people with renal failure...

 for the final years of his life. In addition, in 1993, part of his right leg was amputated due to poor circulation, having already lost a portion of the other some ten years previously. He soldiered on, playing his brand of the blues up to his death. However, as journalist, Tony Russell, stated in his book The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray, Benton "never found another money spider".

Benton died in January 1996, in Chicago, from the effects of diabetes, at age 63.

His work has appeared on a number of compilation album

Compilation album

A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...

s, including Chicago Blues Festival: 1969-1986 (2001).

Album discography

• 1978 - Spider in My Stew - Ronn
• 1979 - Blues Buster - Red Lightnin'
• 1980 - Buster Benton Is the Feeling - Ronn
• 1983 - First Time in Europe - Blue Phoenix
• 1988 - Why Me - Ichiban
  Ichiban Records
  Ichiban Records was a hip hop record label founded in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1985. Wrap Records and Nastymix Records were some of its subsidiary labels. Urgent! Records was distributed by Ichiban. Most of its discography is now out of print. Besides hip hop groups, Ichiban also released albums by...
  
  
• 1989 - Money's the Name of The Game - Ichiban
• 1991 - I Like to Hear My Guitar Sing - Ichiban
• 1993 - Blues at the Top - Evidence Music
• 1997 - That's the Reason - Ronn
• 2002 - Blues and Trouble - Black & Blue