Ben Schmidt
while you were sleeping
© 2005 ben schmidt (687474129620)
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Great songwriting with fingerstyle guitar that drives, shakes, shuffles and swings with a fresh approach to the roots of folk/blues, and an honest and rich soulfull voice.
tracks
- 1 when you began
- 2 gargoyles and statuary
- 3 easy down
- 4 go back
- 5 wyoming
- 6 bourbon in my coffee
- 7 wilton
- 8 skin
- 9 kiss don't miss
- 10 up the stairs
- 11 while you were sleeping
- 12 slime
- 13 unspeakable bird
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Visionary lyricist and outstanding acoustic finger-style and slide guitar wizard, Ben Schmidt self-produced his first CD, Write It Down, in 2002. His warm, versatile voice, alternately sweet and dark, colors compositions from ballads to blues.
Called "an extraordinary talent" and "the total package" by music critic Jim Musser (No Depression), Ben is influenced by a vast range of musicians and musical genres, most prominently folk and Mississippi delta blues. Of Write It Down, Musser says, "You'll hear elements of John Gorka, Jesse Winchester, Kelly Joe Phelps and, on the slipped-rhythm fun-house 'Dance That Dance,' doses of Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen."
Schmidt's second CD, While You Were Sleeping, was released in July of 2005. Cohesive and musically intricate, While You Were Sleeping speaks to contemporary issues in our culture, and gives a mature voice to classic themes of love and loss.
A prolific songwriter, Ben has two other CDs in the works, due out in 2006. The first is a collection of solos for guitar interspersed with works for guitar and voice, the other a continuation of the work started in the first two discs. There is also a collaboration brewing with guitar slinger/multi-instrumentalist, Dustin Busch, based on the "Lucy poems" of William Wordsworth.
Self-taught, thirty-two year-old Schmidt has been playing guitar for 20 years and writing songs since he was fifteen. The landscapes of his songs draw equally from his upbringing in Chicago, as well as his current home in Iowa City, Iowa. Ben is a favorite of Eastern Iowa public radio stations and is a featured artist on WSUI's Java Blend compilation CD, as well as KUNI's Best of Live from Studio One compilation disc.
In addition to enjoying national radio airplay, Ben plays regularly throughout the Midwest and has opened for and performed with a variety of other artists, including Peter Mulvey, Edie Carey and Alistair Moock.
Ben Schmidt lives in Iowa City, Iowa with his family and his dog, Django.
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great guitar, lyrics, style
author: NicI love Ben's guitar playing and the lyrics of the songs. His easy style with an edge reminds me of the late Jim Croce. I think, however, that he should not fall in love with his own musicwriting. Try other peoples' songs once in awhile.