Live! at the Baptist Country Music Special #2

Ben is a versatile, multi-instrumentalist whose musical career has led him to perform with a range of artists such as Warren H Williams, Kevin Sullivan, the Art Deco Dance Orchestra and many emerging singer songwriters. His enthusiasm for music has been evident from a very young age, receiving his first guitar at age 2. His initial instrument was the clarinet which he began learning at age 4 and at only 16 years of age he was the winner of the open clarinet section of the Queensland Clarinet and Saxophone Society competition. He has since completed a Bachelor of Music on Jazz Clarinet at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music.

Since the age of 9 months old Ben has been captivated by the guitar and has spent many hours playing in different bands and learning new styles and techniques. At 14 years old Ben’s love for all things guitar rose to new heights when he discovered the playing of Australian virtuoso guitarist Joe Robinson. Seeing Joe’s unique way of playing the guitar as a one-man band inspired Ben to explore the acoustic finger-style genre. Ben then went on to discover Tommy Emmanuel and other finger-style artists who have shaped his playing. More recently Ben’s influences have been from the country music scene where he has discovered guitarists such as Brent Mason and Albert Lee, bringing a new flavour to his sound.

Ben’s performing has explored the sounds of classical, jazz, funk, finger-style and country styles of playing on guitar, saxophone, clarinet, bass and drums.Over the past few years Ben has performed across Australia playing festivals such as the Tamworth Country Music Festival, including at the opening concert on the Toyota Park stage, as well as the ‘Urban Country Music Festival’, the ‘Festival of the Sails’, and Australia’s largest gospel music festival, ‘Easterfest’. At the beginning of 2018 Ben completed the CMAA Senior Academy of Country Music in Tamworth which gave him the opportunity to perform with country duo O’Shea at the 2018 Golden Guitar awards. Ben continues to build his name as a solo acoustic finger-style guitarist and a free-lancing multi-instrumentalist in a range of genres across the Australian music scene.