CD release show |
Visionary lyricist and outstanding
acoustic finger-style guitar wizard, Ben Schmidt has released two
self-produced CDs, Write It Down (2002) and While You Were
Sleeping (2005). 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 has been 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.” He calls While
You Were Sleeping “a pillar to post gem.” 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.
Self-taught, and continually evolving, Schmidt
has been playing guitar for over 20 years and writing songs since he was 15.
The landscapes of his songs draw from his upbringing in Chicago, as well as
his current home in Iowa City. 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. He currently serves as artist in residence at Johnson
Elementary School of the Arts in Cedar Rapids.
Ben’s forthcoming CD, Silt,
is an exploration of arrangement and musical texture as the backdrop for
lyrics based in a post-flood landscape. The stories and images in these
songs are from the perspective of people who have experienced “storms” —
physical, emotional and spiritual. They describe in terms simple and poetic,
what precipitated, what transpired, and what remains when the waters recede.
For his CSPS
CD-release show, Ben will be joined onstage by guitarist Dustin Busch (who
will also open the show), drummer Steve Hayes, vocalist Lori Lane and
long-time mandolin compatriot Larry Mossman. :::
Opening for Ben Schmidt is Dustin Busch. SOLD OUT
Sat Feb 6 | 8
pm CSPS | 1103 Third
St SE
| Cedar Rapids
$11 + fee advance | $15 door
