Richard Bennett - Ballads In Otherness (2018)

Ballads In Otherness, the sixth record in a series of original guitar music from the pen and fingers of Richard Bennett; record producer, studio musician and long-time guitarist with Mark Knopfler and Neil Diamond. It is an unusual title for an album especially as all the songs are not exactly ballads in the modern sense but in the traditional one of a song or melody that tells a story at any tempo. These are ballads with a beat and all 13 of them tell a story of otherness. Along the way you will here some Southern r&b, a gumshoe serenade delivered on a console steel guitar, something vaguely Asian, a slice of dream-pop, duet for English Horn and Stratocaster, a nod to Hamburg, Germany's recording history, a hillbilly waltz and something for solo electric guitar. Dive into the otherness, the water's fine.

Richard Bennett is an American guitarist and record producer. As a touring sideman, he performed with Neil Diamond for seventeen years and Mark Knopfler since 1994. As a session musician, he has worked with Billy Joel, Barbra Streisand, Rodney Crowell, and Vince Gill. He has produced albums for Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Marty Stuart, and Kim Richey.