There is a deft guy in Woodstock, New York, Bennett “Harris” Horowitz, who grew up in Queens, New York City. He may not quite be a household name, but he plays with passion and devotion and can pick the guitar most eloquently. Unless you are in the Hudson Valley of New York, chances are you might not know the mostly local bluesman who is working hard to keep the acoustic traditions alive. In 2015 he retired from his day job in the New York City Public School System, where was a teacher at the High School of Art and Design, instructing painting, drawing and art history. He has been gigging as an acoustic blues musician since about 1991 and now he is devoted to performing the old-time blues. He mainly plays local venues around Woodstock, performing some original songs, but mostly old blues tunes. You might find him at the famous Bearsville Theater, or at City Island in the Bronx, which used to be called the Starving Artist.
Many musicians are also visual artists. Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, John Lennon, Cat Stevens, and Miles Davis are just a few notable examples. Before he entered the teaching profession, Bennett Harris was a long-time freelancer in the magazine industry in New York City. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and a Master of Fine Arts from the California College of Arts and Crafts in the San Francisco Bay area. He previously pursued a career in commercial art. When the magazine industry collapsed around 2003, he went back to school to get a teaching certificate.
Like many white baby boomers, he found his way to the blues via the back door, tracing its way back to the roots, “I’m a rock ‘n’ roll kid, and like lots of other people in my generation, I became aware of blues music through rock ‘n’ roll. I became aware of Robert Johnson through the Rolling Stones. I became aware of Bessie Smith through Janis Joplin. But, most important, I became aware of acoustic blues music through Hot Tuna. It was Jorma Kaukonen’s playing of the Reverend Gary Davis Piedmont style that originally inspired me. By fate, I had the good fortune of taking guitar lessons from the same person who tutored Jorma Kaukonen, and that was Ian Buchanan. Ian Buchanan had been mentored by the Reverend Gary Davis. I took about six lessons with Ian Buchanan in 1978. He didn’t tell me this, but he had been Jorma Kaukonen’s college roommate, and he taught Jorma Kaukonen the Gary Davis fingerpicking style. So, I took about six lessons with Ian Buchanan, and then he graduated me. He said, “Okay, you’re done.” I already knew my way around the guitar, and I needed lessons to learn this particular technique. The other big influence on me was going to see John Hammond Jr. play, and I got inspired to take up slide on the National Steel Guitar and harmonica. These were the two main guys that got me into it from a guitar point of view. Later I listened to Ry Cooder and Gary Davis, Blind Blake, Robert Johnson – kind of the standard people. I had a good time taking some old Bessie Smith tunes and adapting them to guitar. Tom Rush was also an important figure, because he was a guy who was a white folkie who was playing blues music – not intimating the sound of the old black bluesmen, making it something of his own and validating that possibility. David Bromberg is another person whose eclectic presentation made me aware of all these different kinds of music that weren’t immediately available on New York City radio.”
“I play old guitars. I play an old Gibson, but I also play an old National Steel Guitar, and people are often intrigued by that – the National Steel Guitar from the 1930s. John Hammond plays one of those. You would have seen Taj Mahal use one. Johnnie Winter played one. My original songs present particular points of view. I can’t really analyze what that is, but you’re not going to hear those songs from anybody else. My presentation tends to be very lively and energetic, so you know I want people to feel a certain kind of lively spirit and energy. I’m trying to maintain that tradition, that fingerpicking style. It’s mostly the Piedmont style. I play some Blind Blake tunes and Reverend Gary Davis, Blind Boy Fuller and some Robert Johnson. Son House also, some of the things on the National Steel Guitar are a bit more thumping and a little bit less Delta fingerpicking, so it’s a combination of Piedmont and kind of Delta style…I’m out to present a good time for people. I want them to feel like they can dance in their seats and it’s going to be a heart spirited performance that’s going to lift their spirits… Musically, I like Jorma Kaukonen. I still like to see John Hammond play. I am still interested in Ry Cooder. Paul Geremia is someone who influenced me. Early Bonnie Raitt also. Of my contemporaries, I like Frank Fotusky a great deal. I listen to Toby Walker, who is a great player – and he’s a good teacher also. There’s a fellow in New York City named Hugh Pool, whose playing I like a great deal. I used to be pals with Frank Christian. We used to play together, and he was an inspiration also. The key thing for me is like where did I learn how to do this stuff? Ian Buchanan is that particular link that I like to brag about and that’s just an accident of fate. There was a bio about Jorma Kaukonen, and it said “Jorma Kaukonen learned the intricacies of Reverend Gary Davis’s guitar playing style from his roommate at Antioch College, Ian Buchanan.” And I was like, son of a gun, that was the guy that was teaching me.”
