Today we’d like to introduce you to Ben Garnett.
Hi Ben, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up in Arlington, Texas. I started on piano and switched to guitar when I was around 12, then spent the next few years deep in the instrumental rock worlds of Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani, and Steve Vai. My cousin Andy Timmons lived about an hour up Highway 121 and is one of the most accomplished guitarists in that world. What Andy imparted to me was partly about touch: how expressive you can be with it, how much control you have over a single note. But the bigger thing he showed me was how a song, even a wordless one, can carry far more power than any display of virtuosity. I still think about all of that constantly, now on the acoustic guitar.
I went to the University of North Texas for jazz guitar and graduated in 2016. UNT is famously a big band school, and the arranging classes taught me something I still rely on: if you want musicians to play what you’re hearing, you write it down. The One O’Clock Lab Band’s whole standard is immense attention to detail, down to precise articulations and specific ways of playing a line. That’s still a huge part of how I write. But I’ve also been deeply influenced by the oral traditions of string band music, and folk music more broadly, which are more interpretive and more casual by nature. In that tradition, the musical ideas have to be robust enough to hold up no matter who’s playing them or how.
Halfway through school I found contemporary acoustic music, and from there bluegrass, string band music, and folk. Punch Brothers first, then Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge’s duo records, Avalon and Mount Royal. Hearing that was a light switch. The music sat at the intersection of everything I already cared about, and it sent me down a long rabbit hole, into the worlds of Tony Rice, David Grisman, Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and more.
Meanwhile I was doing pop session and sideman work around Dallas and playing in the more experimental corners of Denton. Then, in 2017, I went to the Acoustic Music Seminar in Savannah and met Mike Marshall, Julian Lage, Bryan Sutton, and Aoife O’Donovan, all of whom were heroes I’d been listening to for years. Bryan mentioned offhand that I should think about moving to Nashville. I did that same year, and joined Missy Raines’ band a few weeks later, which is where I started playing serious bluegrass for the first time.
Since then it’s been sideman work with Missy and with the progressive bluegrass band Circus No. 9, a lot of teaching, and gradually making my own records. Chris Eldridge, who has since become my main mentor and a dear friend, produced my debut, Imitation Fields, in 2023. My sophomore release, Kite’s Keep, came out last year and features Darol Anger and Brittany Haas on fiddles, Paul Kowert and Ethan Jodziewicz on basses, Chris on additional guitar, and multi-instrumentalist Matt Glassmeyer. There’s a third in the pipeline, coming early next year, though I can’t say much about it yet.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No, a smooth road doing what we do is simply impossible, and honestly I don’t think much good art comes from a smooth road anyway. That said, most of the struggles I’ve been dealt I think are pretty ordinary.
The first was a feeling of arriving late, and from the outside. I moved to Nashville a year out of jazz school, and within a few weeks I was playing bluegrass in Missy Raines’ band alongside people who had grown up inside that music, in some cases since childhood. I was essentially learning a tradition in public, on stage, in front of audiences who knew it far better than I did. There’s really no shortcut through that. You take the gig, you get better slowly, and you hope nobody minds too much in the meantime.
The second is just arithmetic. Sideman work pays and leading a band mostly doesn’t, at least not early on, so you end up funding your own records with other people’s tours. That’s a pretty normal arrangement in this music, but it does mean the pure logistics of the calendar ends up being one of the harder instruments to play.
The third ultimately turned out not to be a struggle at all. The pandemic hit right as Chris Eldridge and I were halfway through editing Imitation Fields, and what would have been a normal album finish became two years of “what if we tried this instead, or this, or this.” Which was ultimately a beautiful and very necessary experience for me as an artist, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. In fact I’d recommend it to anyone making a first record: take way longer than you think you need, cause it’s worth it. It is a double-edged sword, going down every rabbit hole and playing in the sandbox with every small idea, and it can definitely drive you a little insane. But it’s a learning experience like no other.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a guitarist and composer. Most of what I make is instrumental music for acoustic instruments, usually guitar, fiddle, and bass, and it draws on string band, jazz, folk, experimental/avant-garde, and chamber music without settling permanently in any of them. Alongside that, I work as a sideman, and I teach a fair amount.
The thing I specialize in, if it’s a specialty, is writing for the room rather than for the guitar. The guitar is where the ideas start, but I’m mostly thinking about the ensemble. What a fiddle can do with a line that a guitar can’t, where the bass should be sitting, how much space to leave. A lot of guitar records are about the guitar. Mine aren’t, really, even though every piece begins there.
What I’m proudest of is who has been willing to play this music. Kite’s Keep has Darol Anger and Brittany Haas on fiddles, Paul Kowert and Ethan Jodziewicz on basses, and my hero and mentor Chris Eldridge on additional guitar. Those are people I was listening to long before I met any of them, and getting them into a room for five days isn’t something you can arrange with a budget. I think you get it by writing something they want to play.
As for what sets the work apart, I think it’s a specific combination that doesn’t come up much. I came out of a rigorous jazz program where everything gets written down and articulations are specified to the smallest detail, and then I spent years inside string band and folk traditions, which are oral, interpretive, and casual by design. Those two things don’t usually live in the same musician. Holding both means I write pieces that are precisely made but still loose enough for great players to be themselves inside them.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
The most useful thing is coming to a show. This music is built for rooms, and it lands differently in one than it does through a speaker. I tour with my trio, and I’m out a good amount as a side-person with Missy Raines & Allegheny, so there’s usually something on the calendar. Dates are at bengarnett.net/tour.
Buying a record directly helps considerably more than streaming does. My records are on Bandcamp.
I also teach, and take students both in person and online. I’m available for sessions, side-person work, and producing. And I’m always glad to hear from someone composing who wants another set of ears on their music.
The simplest version is that I have a new record coming early next year, and my mailing list at bengarnett.net is how you’d actually hear about it, which is more than an algorithm is going to do for any of us.
Pricing:
- $75 / 30 min private lesson
- $100 / 1 hr. private lesson
- Prices are negotiable
- Rates for production, session work, side-person work, and transcription depend on the project, so the best thing is just to get in touch. I’d rather have the conversation than post a number that doesn’t fit what you’re actually doing.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bengarnett.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bengarnettmusic
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bengarnettmusic/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuPSMYiv2Il4h8Z1nVFiU6A
