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REAL QUOTES About Ben "With a red-hot mandolin for a heart... Winship's music is a celebration of range, breadth and experiment." - Bluegrass Unlimited "One of the acoustic music scene's best writers. Sits and contemplates in sleepy little Victor, Idaho. I wonder what Ben is thinking about right now...it's gonna be another great song." -Tim O'Brien "A further leap from traditional hill country music...Winship successfully showcases his mastery of the mandolin and banjo and steps out as a talented country-folk sonqwriter." -Craig Harris, The Boston Globe "A highly talented player, singer and songwriter, Winship adds a fresh new voice to contemporary folk and bluegrass. His mandolin work is fluid, with rich tone and solid rhythm chops." - Sing Out! "Por su digitacion y creatividad, distaco sin duda, Ben Winship, en la mandolina, un instrumanto fundamental en la propuesta del grupo, que en cambio no se dejo espacio niprocuro solos instrumentales." - El Comercio, Quito, Ecuador "Can Ben Winship write a great song or what?" - Dave Higgs, WPLN, Nashville "This record delivers a full dose of what Ben has become known for - good sounding, well crafted, interesting music. I like how it's both relaxed and intense, and from strong roots." -Pete Wernick, IBMA President/Hot Rize/The Live Five "Whatever you call Ben's style of music, you can call it wonderful! One Shoe Left sounds great on my radio show. The song selection is terrific, the arrangements are unique, and the musicianship is world class. It doesn't get much better than this!" -Wayne Rice KSON, San Diego "It is so strong music on it." -Shin Akimoto Hyogo, Japan "In a world full of almost hum-drum bluegrass and pseudo-bluegrass, an album like this really stands out -- thanks for taking some chances and going out on a creative limb. I'll be playing One Shoe Left every chance I get here in Nashville" -Dave Higgs WPLN, Nashville "This is just too good! Why did you have to go and make such an incredible record?" -Dan Willging Dirty Linen "Winship is a poet who makes you believe every word he sings." -Elizabeth Kelly,Teton Arts Council, President One Shoe Left - at last the soundtrack to My Left Foot." -Rich Moore,The Live Five/Mollie OâBrien Band "This
is a great album, full of cool tunes, insightful lyrics and hot picking." "This one is definitely a keeper...it draws you in and keeps you listening to it over and over again. Both Winship and Lowell are outstanding songwriters. Winship's Lily Green and Lowell's Sarah Hogan are destined to become bluegrass standards." -Dan Miller, Flatpicking Guitar "The Growling Old Men aren't really as scary as they sound." -Missoula Independent "One of the most engaging releases I’ve heard this decade... Growling Old Men sparkles with outstandingly original material, an irrepressibly-western tinged groove, energetic picking and fine singing. You can rest assured I'll be wearing it out here in Nashville." -Dave Higgs, WPLN-FM, Nashville "I can't stop listening to it." -Judith Edelman "The duo makes uncompromising music that fits somewhere between Old & In The Way and Chris Hillman. The playing is fluid and inventive, the vocals tight and the arrangements fresh. The duo doesn't set a foot wrong in this unpretentious set." -Relix Magazine "...ideally blended voices, crisp and clean picking, and some of the finest songs and ballads around. No cause for growling or grumbling here." -Bluegrass Unlimited "The two play together with the fluidity and ease that comes only with years of practice and a healthy dose of natural talent." -Dirty Linen ___________________________________________________________________ Teton
Valley News, April 11, 2002: LAYING TRACK, VICTOR STYLE Ben Winship's Henhouse Studio is producing some good eggs. For many, Sundays are set aside from the other days of the week for reflection, religious devotion and quality time with friends and family. In the heart of Victor, there is a place where all of that takes place, and it's called The Henhouse. For 14 years, Ben Winship has been pickin' and grinnin' in Teton Valley. Ten years back, he built a structure behind his house that provided just enough space to allow for a little peace and quiet to write songs and musical scores. But as recent as last spring, Winship upped the ante and added on to what was formerly his own private Idaho retreat. Since then, Winship's hideaway, The Henhouse, has evolved into a bonafide recording studio that is often hired by local musicians who are serious about cutting an album. Winship helped Mike Dowling put together a swing guitar instructional album, and is currently working with area musicians, Reina Collins and Mike Hurwitz, on projects. While Winship currently divides his time between playing music and recording it, last Sunday his friends, who make up the rest of his bluegrass band Kane's River, were down from Montana to work on fine tuning their most current tracks. Passing through the doorway of the Henhouse, an attitude of soft-spoken reverence settles the shoulders of visitors. The musicians play behind the glass, and the engineer sits with other members of the band who have their chins pinched between thumb and forefinger or sit cross-legged with a far-away look in their eyes, listening intently to every beat of bluegrass banjo played by Julie Elkins. As Elkins struck the same seven-second lick over and over, Winship adjusted the dials of the mixing console and "punched" the newest recording over the score that included all the other instrumentals and vocals. Punching is similar to overdubbing in a recording studio, but punching is the term used when a section needs fixing, and overdubbing is recording something new along with pre-recorded tracks, according to Winship and Kane's River guitarist John Lowell. Pretty picky stuff for an outsider, but it quickly becomes clear that it's the littlest things that matter when you're separating good recordings from the best recording. Lowell and bassist for Kane's River, David Thompson, sat with Winship in the studio to perfect the banjo recording played by Elkins. They spoke in a secret code learned over years of fretting, picking and strumming with fellow artists. "That punch was a little weird, a little goofy. Let's try it again," Winship said. Elkins plays the riff again while the eyes of the three men glaze over with concentration. "Do that two octave thing, but accent the first one and not the second one. It's not like the usual Berry Bales thing," Thompson said. "What he's trying to say, is that you're putting one extra note in there," Lowell said. Elkins plays the riff again several times while the three men sit on the other side of the recording glass, tapping their feet with the beat. "Okay, you've got the dip-do-dee-dah-doe. Okay, yeah, after the dee-dah, you need the beat right before Ben's vocal comes in," Thompson said, and all four musicians nod their heads, understanding the subtleties of what the heck he's talking about. In the cool, well-lighted studio that has all the trappings of an artist's affectation, the banjo riff plays on, and one time it's "a tiny bit draggy", once it's "not quite clean," "a little rushed," and "give it one more lick." Then, after Winship plays back Elkins' most recent contribution, everybody is quiet, nodding to the silent affirmation of what has been perfected. Thompson breaks the silence, "Excellent. Most excellent." "I think that was it," Winship agrees. Lowell's still nodding, "Yeah, that sounded excellent." A world away from the lights of the stage and the foot-stompin' crowd, Henhouse studio allowed these musicians an afternoon to fine tune the recording of a genre of music that most believe to be primarily improvisational. Quite to the contrary, these artists' ears take the octave and beat, harmony and texture of sound to a whole new level, a deeper dimension and inner understanding. After the four sit together in the recording room to go over another piece, Winship pauses after a lengthy lick on the mandolin, his hands resting at the base of the instrument's neck that has had the varnish worn off long ago. "How was that," he asked the group, "It's not too hippie?" "What's that mean, to be too hippie?" I wondered. "We're not sure how to explain that to you, but we all know it when we hear it," Lowell said. The group takes a break to watch Sam, Winship's younger son, perform a magic trick that he's just learned from his brother Owen. Everyone appreciates the brief diversion from the musical magic they've been making all morning. No telling what's in store for the afternoon at the Henhouse. For more information on Ben Winship's Henhouse recording studio, please visit his Web site at www.benwinship.com
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