The New York roots and blues singer/songwriter Jimmy Bennett grew up in Brooklyn and has been active on the local roots & blues scene for decades, mostly as sideman. He just recently made a splash on the acoustic blues scene with his new album Sunday Morning Sessions, a fine record that started during the pandemic and showcases his refined and elegant fingerpicking skills. The Covid forced many of us into isolation, but like all perilous times, it sparked artistic inspiration among the shut-in creatives. Jimmy Bennett expressed that he felt “fear, dread and hopelessness”– sentiments shared by many of us in 2020 as the world around us almost completely shut down. Artists express inner emotions through their craft, and Bennett initially channeled his in a video of himself playing a special composition Easter Morning Melody, an inspiring, upbeat, and fluid fingerpicking instrumental. That contribution of musical joy gave people a lift. This album, a sheer listening pleasure, carries on that sentiment.
On Sunday Morning Sessions the bard delivers 10 mostly original songs, an amalgam of acoustic roots & blues and Americana. Bennett sings and plays acoustic and resonator guitars. He is joined by John Ginty on vintage vibe piano, Hammond organ and drums. Ginty also produced, recorded and mixed the album down in Saratoga, Florida.
Uninitiated listeners may hear this record and assume that it is Jorma Kaukonen. Bennett’s natural vocal range is conspicuously similar to Jorma’s. Both are swift fingerpicking stylists with an impeccable alternating bass technique. Particularly on Will I See You Again, and on the ancient sounding blues Mr. Charlie, that comparison is appropriate. Most evidently, Bennett is clearly just as good as his most famous compatriot, but he is no copier. He is a truly superb instrumentalist and fine singer, and these songs really carry a punch. The album is consistently even song-to-song, each sensitive and quite virtuosic. Importantly, he touches the soul.
Sunday Morning Sessions is a sweet record that deservedly puts Bennett on the map as one of our finest contemporary guitar instrumentalists and singer/songwriters. A gift for our troubled times. All that, but he may still be under the radar of many acoustic blues fans.
Thecountryblues.com caught up with the artist via phone in June 2023, to let him tell his own story:
“My first experience playing guitar, I was very young. I was literally attracted to the TV when I heard the Bonanza theme song. I got a guitar when I was six years old, and I started playing in the church with the nuns in Brooklyn during the Sunday folk mass, around 1966/ ’67. I remember learning how to play “Amen,” the song that Sidney Poitier had sang in the movie back then. I learned Blowin’ in the Wind and all those great old folk songs like This Land is Your Land. From there, I learned about the blues and country music. Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Merle Travis, Hank Williams, George Jones, and Glen Campbell – I just kept researching and working my way back into the blues with the Reverend Gary Davis, Robert Johnson, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and Blind Blake.
I started playing open mics when I was just 8 or 9 years old. By the time I was 14 or 15, I started playing shows with all kinds of bands. I started to play professionally when I was 16 or 17 years old, touring and playing constantly, seven nights a week. We were playing a lot of country and country rock music, anything from Hank Williams to Charlie Daniels. We used to play the Old Lone Star in Manhattan and clubs throughout the city and the tri-state area (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut). We toured all through the Midwest, Southeast, Southwest. And we were constantly playing.
I’ve always been writing songs, singing and playing acoustic guitar. Some of the best stuff we had done musically was playing clubs in New York City when the music and the musicianship was so superior. Everybody from James Brown to Levon Helm, to Lightnin’ Hopkins would come in Greenwich Village constantly. Plus, we played up at the Levon Helm’s barn in Woodstock where he held his famous Midnight Rambles with him back in the early 2000s. It was basically the Bennett Brothers, me and my brother, and Levon Helm, who was just coming out of his cancer treatments. He was playing drums with us and Garth Hudson and Amy Helm would join in. We had also been working with Alexis P. Suter. The musicians we met and played with at the barn were just tremendous. It’s really great when you’re in an environment with great musicians on a weekly basis, and everybody’s sharing and writing and creating new stuff, those were some of the great memories I have of playing music.
I just try to play music to make the world a better place, make people forget their troubles. That is what music always was, if you remember some of the best times of your life. Sometimes a piece of music comes into your head and that’s to me great music. I guess that’s how I started playing the Sunday Morning Sessions was to make me feel better at such a horrible time. That was the only thing I had to offer. I would like to be remembered as somebody who could make people feel good when they needed a few minutes to forget about their troubles. We all got our things in life that take us away from enjoying life. Sometimes music will bring back, even if it’s only for a few minutes.
Right now, I am mostly playing with my brother Peter, we are the Bennett Brothers. I also have a project with the Alexis P. Suter Band. We’re recording a record in the Hudson Valley – at Lee Falco’s studio. I am in the process of doing a tribute album for my old producer and record company Ben Elliott. That’s with John Ginty, the gentleman that recorded my record – and he’s currently on the road I think with the Allman Betts project – that’s with sons of Gregg Allman and Dickey – Devon Allman and Duane Betts. So those projects are all coming up.
Songs come to me in various forms. Sometimes a song will come in one piece. I got to hang out with a wonderful, most talented songwriter named Leonard Cohen. He told me that sometimes a song could take 10, 20, 30 years. He’s right, because there are still songs that I have from years ago that I still revisit. S ome of the ones that haven’t been completed, they just sit there because I haven’t found the rest of the song to go with it. I remember driving down from the mountains, having a song in my head in the car, trying to record it – pull over and write something down.
John Ginty pushed me into doing Sunday Morning Sessions. I may not have done it if it wasn’t for him. He said you got to do this record. I never wanted to be the front man. I’m not the greatest singer in the world. It happened to fall into place anyway. Working with John was a wonderful experience. It brought me to a place I never thought I would be, but it feels good.”
On Sunday Morning Sessions Bennett covers a sweet version of Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire. He lets loose on some serious foot stomping, unbridled Delta style slide blues on the fierce instrumental Snow Sliding. His blues prowess kicks into gear on Katy Mae, a swift slide blues piece. Broken River Stream is another fine, joyous fingerpicking instrumental. He closes the album with another Delta slide blues Serenade for New Orleans, with the pandemic lament “Serenade, sweet parade, won’t celebrate no more, what about tomorrow, will help be on the way?”
Sunday Morning Sessions is a fine record that deservedly puts Bennett on the map as one of our finest contemporary guitar instrumentalists and singer/songwriters. A sweet gift for our troubled times.