The Boise Blues Society Presents The Brett Benton Trio on Sunday, April 7 at the Sapphire Room in Boise. While the Sapphire Room is noted for featuring creative, mainly rock and R&B style blues, Brett is bringing to the Sapphire Room country and delta blues. These styles hearken back to the old days and form the basis for much of the modern blues music.
That in itself is even more a pleasant surprise. Much of the resurgence in blues comes frome older musicians who are finally becoming well known. Brett, on the other hand, is young and brings a freshness to the music that is heard to beat. He also ably represents the new generation of blues and shows a reverence for those who came before him. Brett spoke with The Boise Beat about music, his new to be released album You Got To Pray and what he’s got planned for the upcoming show as The Boise Blues Society Presents The Brett Benton Trio at the Sapphire Room.
Q: What got you into the blues?
A: I was born and raised in Alabama so I grew up next to Mississippi. The blues traditionally is Southern music; and I had people in my family who played—not anybody notable, but my grandparents and my parents in particular listened to blues music. When I was five years old, I heard this Mississippi Fred McDowell song where he was playing behind Big Mama Thornton who was singing . He was playing slide guitar behind everything she was doing. Probably at that moment it was one of my earliest memories, what got me into blues and country blues in particular.
Q: Who were your musical inspirations?
A: Oh man, that’s a doozy of a question! (laughs). Well first person, first and foremost—Mississippi Fred McDowell. He taught R.L. Burnside, who is another one of my biggest influences. He was from Holly Springs, Mississippi. His grandson, Cedric Burnside, who is a friend of mine, is also one of my biggest influences. John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters both are big influences of mine, but before they had a big Chicago-type band and a Chicago-type sound. I like John Lee Hooker back when he played by himself, like recordings from 1952. Muddy Waters’ first song, from 1948, Robert Belford, Robert Pete Williams, Son House, Robert Johnson especially because I love his song structure. There so many, so many influences!
To me, John Lee Hooker was fearless behind his guitar—he could have 40 recordings of the same song and not one of them would be the same. He would really go with however he felt as he was playing it. I incorporate that a lot in either my solo shows or even with my drummer—there’s not a day when we play a song exactly the same. That’s one of the ways that John Lee Hooker influenced me.
Q: what do you see as the difference between each of the styles of blues that you play? Electric, acoustic, delta and country…..?
A: For acoustic versus electric, I started out playing acoustic guitar because obviously when you start out listening to people like Robert Johnson, they had no electric guitars. Arnold Burnside from Holly Springs, Mississippi—his first recordings were acoustic as was Fred McDowell. It’s just like that natural, raw, deep sound—it really struck me, so I started out playing acoustic. A lot of people do. When I moved over to electric, I really don’t play it much very different except that whenever I’m playing bigger electric shows with my drummer there’s a little bit more loud/soft dynamic to the songs. I play the same songs, both electric and acoustic, but they sound a little bit different.
For delta blues and country blues, they’re both rhythmic—they’re more rhythm and grooved-based music unlike Chicago blues. There’s a lot of intricate guitar work behind Chicago blues and that’s not what I play. Country and delta blues stay rhythmic. For delta blues, you still have a lot of those 1-4-5 setups which I love. There’s still plenty you can do with that. For country blues; and hill-country blues in particular, you’re playing the rhythm and the lead guitar at the same time. I’m playing the bass notes with my thumb and then I’m playing the lead with my index finger. Then I’m using my fret fingers for the lead as well.
It differs a little from delta blues. Delta blues I’ll do a little bit more whole chords and I’ll be playing slide and using open tunings for both. It’s different from Chicago or Texas blues where you play the standard—doing more finger and standard work is a good way to put it.
Q: Do you have a special guitar and slide that you like to use?
A: I do as a matter of fact. I have a Tri Cone Resonator and it’s made by a company called Republic Guitars. They’re out of Austin Texas; and it’s the only guitar that I’ve ever bought that I didn’t play that particular model first before I bought it. The first Republic guitar that I ever played, Ben Rice let me play his one night when we were in a show together. Man, I was curious about them and I fell in love with that one. I went ahead and ordered one from the company because they’re basically built to order.
I play a lot of solo shows and in the same vein that a lot of my idols started playing solo; and that guitar, especially for playing slide, man it just sings! Mine in particular has a pickup on it that has a very thick sound but it has a lot of attack to it. I can’t put the thing down, I mean I really can’t! I do use it at every single show. But even at the electric shows with my drummer I’ll switch it around between the other guitars, but if I could get away with it I’d use this guitar for every show.
Q: Are you happy with your upcoming You Got To Pray album?
A: Yes! Very much so—it’s my first studio album and in many ways it has been a long time coming. I’ve recorded other things before that I just wasn’t happy with until we released the Live At Highway 99 Blues Club which is a live EP. It wasn’t mixed or mastered or anything. We did it for the International Blues Challenge, to have something to enter. It had a lot of covers on it.
This new album, You’ve got to Pray, was recorded down in Water Valley, Mississippi at a studio called Dial Back Sound. Being in Mississippi, since Cedric is a friend of mine, he came to play on it. My buddy Ed Adams, from the Alabama/Florida area, who taught me a lot of what I know personally. He’s on the album. My drummer Arturo Ortega-Marcos who’s done such a great job, he’s on the album. Bronson the engineer at the studio did a really great job.
It’s going to be distributed by Knick Knack Records out of Seattle. They’re very involved with some of the deep blues artists all across the country. The album is all original songs and some of them are older—some of them are the first songs I ever wrote.It’s nice to get them down and hear them the way i’ve always wanted to hear them. It also has some other songs that i’ve written that I’m very proud of—all of them are very relevant at different points in my life.
Basically, the whole album is about how love is just not enough sometimes. It’s about how love is this beautiful thing and also a very ugly thing. I called the album You Got To Pray because my Grandmama, down in Brewton, Alabama—she always looked out for me and encouraged me to be myself. Once I started playing music, she was one of the biggest encouragements that I had and still have today. She always told me as a kid, “Baby you got to pray about that!”. That stuck with me and got me through most of my life. It’s something I’m really looking forward for people to hear. It’s could have come at a better time in my life than to be releasing it now.
Q: So what about your group that’s going to play here in Boise, as The Boise Blues Society Presents The Brett Benton Trio?
A: The Brett Benton Trio is going include my drummer that I’ve worked with almost all of the past year, Arturo Ortega-Marcos. He’s also from the East Coast and live in Seattle too, not far from where I’m at. He’s just a great drummer; he’s a studio drummer. Because he’s a studio drummer he can be very creative behind the kit. I had a drummer that decided that touring was not for him before we went on tour last year. Arturo shifted some things around in his schedule. We’d already talked previously and he made himself available, which really saved me from a lot of trouble. We just really hit it off and he’s become one of my best friends as well as a bandmate. He knows what to do and when so I’m extremely happy with him.
Then there is Ed Adams, who will be joining me on guitar. With country blues being very rhythmic and a lot of hill-country blues doesn’t have bass because I’m playing low-end with my thumb, the way this is going to work is that Arthur and I are basically the rhythm section. Ed is playing the lead guitar and mostly slide guitar and it’s an honor for me to tour with him. We’ve played a lot of shows but never toured on the road together. He taught me a lot of what I know on guitar. He taught me a lot of what I know about how to act onstage and navigating through the set. He’s a super talented guy, both of them are extremely talented. I’m really excited man, I’m really excited to be taking them on the road with me!
Q: Are you looking forward to coming to Boise with the Brett Benton Trio?
A: I’ve been through Boise but I’ve never really “been” there. I’ve never stopped in Boise and I’ve never played there either, but I have a lot of friends who have played there, some that have played the Sapphire Room in particular.
Q: The Sapphire Room is a great place to play, with really good sound. Do you like intimate rooms?
A: I’ve played a lot of places that are not good sounding. For some of the delta and country blues songs that we play, I like to talk about the artist and where they’re from. With some of the original songs that I’ve written, I try to tell people the stories about that as well, because otherwise some folks might not know—might not ever know.
Q: So it sounds like people in Boise are in for a treat here as The Boise Blues Society Presents The Brett Benton Trio…….
A: I think so! I don’t want to toot my own horn too much but there’s not a lot of artists who are playing—they play a lot of big ol’ songs but being delta and country blues, that’s what a lot of it is. We’re going to play a lot of originals too, but in particular there’s not a lot of people playing that style of blues in the Northwest, from my experience anyways. It adds a different direction and it turns a lot of people on to that style of blues that otherwise might not have even thought about it or heard it; or gave it a second thought even if they did hear it.
Q: Thanks Brett, we’re looking forward to seeing you with the Brett Benton Trio at the Sapphire Room!
Brett Benton does not just play the style of blues he is interested in, but has made it his duty to immerse himself in the traditions and artists who created the type of music he is so passionate about. The show should be an excellent way for both those familiar and unfamiliar in old-school blues to see where many of the blues genres came from. And with one more of many excellent shows presented by the Boise Blues Society, guests at the show will also be able to see a new generation of blues artists playing, singing and composing the music they love.
The Boise Blues Society Presents The Brett Benton Trio Sunday, April 7, 2019 (doors open at 6:30pm, show starts at 7:30pm)
Sapphire Room
The Riverside Hotel
2900 W. Chinden Blvd.
Garden City/Boise, ID 83714
Info Phone: (208) 343-1871
Sapphire Room website
Tickets and info from Eventbrite
Brett Benton website
