Richard Bennett (guitarist)
Encyclopedia
Richard Bennett is a touring sideman
, session veteran, and record producer
. As a touring sideman, he performed with Neil Diamond
for 17 years, and Mark Knopfler
since 1994. As a session player, he has worked with artists ranging from Billy Joel
and Barbra Streisand
to Rodney Crowell
and Vince Gill
. He has produced Grammy award
winning artists like Steve Earle
, Emmylou Harris
, and Marty Stuart
.
, in the late 1960s, until he was discovered by Al Casey
, which took him to Los Angeles
and a lengthy career as a studio musician. He played on a few tracks on Neil Diamond's 1971 album Stones
; Moods was his first full album with him, and he played on every Diamond album until 1987 and toured with him for 17 years. He also co-wrote with Diamond, including the up-tempo "Forever in Blue Jeans
" from the 1978 album You Don't Bring Me Flowers
, which reached the Top 20.
On 1975's "Let Your Love Flow
" by the Bellamy Brothers
, Bennett plays lead guitars. It also features in a UK Barclay's Bank commercial. The song was written by Larry Williams
, a member of Neil Diamond's road crew.
Formed in the late 1970s as Rodney Crowell
's road band, The Notorious Cherry Bombs
' original members include guitarists Vince Gill
and Richard Bennett, keyboardist Tony Brown
, steel guitarist Hank DeVito, drummer Larrie Londin
and bassist Emory Gordy, Jr.
With a modified lineup the musicians went to the studio in early 2004 to record The Notorious Cherry Bombs
, their first album as a band.
From the liner notes of Bennett's solo album, Themes From A Rainy Decade, Mark Knopfler writes, "For almost ten years now I've felt very lucky having Richard Bennett as a pal and as a member of the band. His quiet, self-effacing manner hides an encyclopedic knowledge of all kinds of roots and rock music, from Hillbilly to Hawaiian, played effortlessly on a variety of instruments which appear out of a flight case as big as an Airstream trailer...... May his cracking guitar playing find a place in your life as it has in mine."
Bennett's electric guitar intro to Emmylou Harris' "Heaven Only Knows" (from her Bennett-produced Bluebird
album) was the first sound heard on the 2004 season-opening episode of The Sopranos
.
Bennett contributes electric sitar to the 2007 album American Standard by Thelonious Moog.
, drummer for "Weird Al" Yankovic
since 1980.
Sideman
A sideman is a professional musician who is hired to perform or record with a group of which he or she is not a regular member. They often tour with solo acts as well as bands and jazz ensembles. Sidemen are generally required to be adaptable to many different styles of music, and so able to fit...
, session veteran, and record producer
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...
. As a touring sideman, he performed with Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
for 17 years, and Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977...
since 1994. As a session player, he has worked with artists ranging from Billy Joel
Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...
and Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
to Rodney Crowell
Rodney Crowell
Rodney Crowell is a Grammy Award-winning musician, known primarily for his work as a singer and songwriter in country music....
and Vince Gill
Vince Gill
Vincent Grant "Vince" Gill is an American neotraditional country singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman to the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s, and as a solo artist beginning in 1983, where his talents as a...
. He has produced Grammy award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
winning artists like Steve Earle
Steve Earle
Stephen Fain "Steve" Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and Texas Country as well as his political views. He is also a producer, author, a political activist, and an actor, and has written and directed a play....
, Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...
, and Marty Stuart
Marty Stuart
John Martin "Marty" Stuart is an American country music singer-songwriter, known for both his traditional style, and eclectic merging of rockabilly, honky tonk, and traditional country music...
.
Career
Bennett began his career playing clubs in Phoenix, ArizonaPhoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
, in the late 1960s, until he was discovered by Al Casey
Al Casey (rock & roll guitarist)
Alvin W. Casey was an American guitarist. He was mainly noted for his work as a session musician, but also released records and scored three Billboard Hot 100 hits in the United States...
, which took him to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and a lengthy career as a studio musician. He played on a few tracks on Neil Diamond's 1971 album Stones
Stones (Neil Diamond album)
Stones was an album by Neil Diamond. It was recorded and released in 1971 and was one of the bigger hit recordings of his career. The conductors and arrangers were Lee Holdridge, Marty Paich and Larry Muhoberac....
; Moods was his first full album with him, and he played on every Diamond album until 1987 and toured with him for 17 years. He also co-wrote with Diamond, including the up-tempo "Forever in Blue Jeans
Forever in Blue Jeans
"Forever in Blue Jeans" is a song by Neil Diamond which was co-written with his guitarist Richard Bennett. This up-tempo track, released as a single by Columbia in February 1979, was taken from the previous year's Neil Diamond album You Don't Bring Me Flowers.The song officially peaked at #20 on...
" from the 1978 album You Don't Bring Me Flowers
You Don't Bring Me Flowers (album)
You Don't Bring Me Flowers is an album by Neil Diamond released in 1978 to capitalize on the success of the title song, a duet with Barbra Streisand, which had originally appeared as a solo recording on Diamond's previous album, I'm Glad You're Here with Me Tonight.- Track listing :All tracks...
, which reached the Top 20.
On 1975's "Let Your Love Flow
Let Your Love Flow
"Let Your Love Flow" is the title of a pop song written by Larry E. Williams, a former roadie for Neil Diamond, and made popular by the American country music duo The Bellamy Brothers. It was offered to Neil Diamond first, but he turned it down...
" by the Bellamy Brothers
Bellamy Brothers
The Bellamy Brothers are an American pop and country music duo brothers David Milton Bellamy and Homer Howard Bellamy , from Darby, Florida, United States...
, Bennett plays lead guitars. It also features in a UK Barclay's Bank commercial. The song was written by Larry Williams
Larry Williams
Larry Williams was an American rhythm and blues and rock and roll singer, songwriter, producer, and pianist from New Orleans, Louisiana...
, a member of Neil Diamond's road crew.
Formed in the late 1970s as Rodney Crowell
Rodney Crowell
Rodney Crowell is a Grammy Award-winning musician, known primarily for his work as a singer and songwriter in country music....
's road band, The Notorious Cherry Bombs
The Notorious Cherry Bombs
The Notorious Cherry Bombs, originally called The Cherry Bombs, was an American country music supergroup founded by singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell in 1980. A former member of Emmylou Harris's Hot Band, Crowell picked several former Hot Band members as his backing band, which he named The Cherry...
' original members include guitarists Vince Gill
Vince Gill
Vincent Grant "Vince" Gill is an American neotraditional country singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman to the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s, and as a solo artist beginning in 1983, where his talents as a...
and Richard Bennett, keyboardist Tony Brown
Tony Brown (record producer)
Tony Brown is an American country music record producer.He was born in Greensboro, North Carolina.Brown played piano for Elvis Presley. He toured with the TCB Band for much of Presley's final two years and was a part of the 1976 "Jungle Room" recording sessions at Graceland...
, steel guitarist Hank DeVito, drummer Larrie Londin
Larrie Londin
Ralph Gallant, better known by his stage name Larrie Londin , was an American drummer and session musician. Londin played with a wide range of artists including Journey and Steve Perry....
and bassist Emory Gordy, Jr.
Emory Gordy, Jr.
Emory Gordy, Jr., born December 25, 1944, in Atlanta, Georgia, is an American musician and music producer. Since 1989, he has been married to country music artist Patty Loveless. Gordy was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1992...
With a modified lineup the musicians went to the studio in early 2004 to record The Notorious Cherry Bombs
The Notorious Cherry Bombs (album)
The Notorious Cherry Bombs is the self-titled debut album by the American country music group The Notorious Cherry Bombs, a band that formerly served as country singer Rodney Crowell's backing band in the 1980s. This is the band's only studio album, with Crowell and Vince Gill alternating as lead...
, their first album as a band.
From the liner notes of Bennett's solo album, Themes From A Rainy Decade, Mark Knopfler writes, "For almost ten years now I've felt very lucky having Richard Bennett as a pal and as a member of the band. His quiet, self-effacing manner hides an encyclopedic knowledge of all kinds of roots and rock music, from Hillbilly to Hawaiian, played effortlessly on a variety of instruments which appear out of a flight case as big as an Airstream trailer...... May his cracking guitar playing find a place in your life as it has in mine."
Bennett's electric guitar intro to Emmylou Harris' "Heaven Only Knows" (from her Bennett-produced Bluebird
Bluebird (Emmylou Harris album)
Bluebird was an Emmylou Harris album from 1989, which merged a number of eclectic songs with polished, country-music production. It included her most recent top-ten country-charting single, "Heartbreak Hill"...
album) was the first sound heard on the 2004 season-opening episode of The Sopranos
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
.
Bennett contributes electric sitar to the 2007 album American Standard by Thelonious Moog.
Personal life
Bennett's brother is Jon "Bermuda" SchwartzJon Schwartz (drummer)
Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz is a drummer best known for working with the singer-songwriter "Weird Al" Yankovic. The two met while recording "Another One Rides the Bus" at the Dr. Demento show on September 14, 1980...
, drummer for "Weird Al" Yankovic
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...
since 1980.
Discography
- Themes From A Rainy DecadeThemes From A Rainy DecadeThemes From A Rainy Decade is the first solo album released by Richard Bennett after decades of work as a studio musician and producer, contributing to thousands of recordings for other artists....
(2004) - Code Red Cloud NineCode Red Cloud NineCode Red Cloud Nine is the second solo album by Richard Bennett, released on Moderne Shellac in February, 2008.* "With his latest release, Code Red Cloud Nine, Bennett and his golden tone guitar come swinging back with a dozen unbeatable originals...
(2008) - Valley of the Sun (2010)