Ben Schmidt

Ben Schmidt | Guitar, Vocals

Singer songwriter, Ben Schmidt, has released three self-produced Cd's; "Write it down" 2002, "While you were Sleeping" 2005, and "Silt" 2010. 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 is influenced by a vast range of musicians and musical genres, most prominently folk and Mississippi delta blues. His Latest CD "Silt" (available Feb 6th 2010) is an exploration of arrangement and musical texture as the backdrop for lyrics based in a post - flood ladscape. 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 receed. "Silt" expands Schmidt's vocabulary for sound with the use of electric guitar, rock hooks , and subtle flavors from haunting steel guitar to the etherial organ work of guest musician Nate Bassinger. Of Schmidt's debut album 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 call's While You Were Sleeping "a pillar to post gem". Self-taught, and continually evolving, Schmidt has been playing guitar for over 20 years and writing songs since he was fifteen. The landscapes of his songs draw equally from his upbringing in Chicago, as well as his current home in Iowa City, Iowa. 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.