TOTT 2016 #10: BENEDICT BENJAMIN

THUS BEGINS our countdown of our favorite tips from 2016 – a selection of emerging artists (voted for by our excellent Tippers) who have made a great impression this year and are destined for bigger and better things in 2017!

To use an apt cliché, it’s incredible what can be achieved with a guitar and a really great voice.

At #10 in our Top of the Tips 2016 we’re proud to include the very talented folk troubadour Benedict Benjamin!  If the name strikes familiar, Benjamin has previously been with Peggy Sue and The Mariner’s Children so he has ample experience of writing great music.

The singer-songwriter who is used to playing in bigger bands decided 2016 was his time to venture out alone and his venture has come with many successes. Whilst his usual gorgeous folk sound has shone through, working on his own record has given Benjamin more freedom to bring in his personal influences like dramatic 1960s pop such as Roy Orbison to craft an altogether new sound.

Using his new found freedom, he has experimented with recording in kitchens, bedrooms and Churches and has gone some way to giving us one of folk’s best and most honest albums in years in the form of the simplistic ‘Night Songs‘, released this year.

Musical impact is often spoken about in terms of creating a large sound but when listening to this record, where it succeeds is in the emptiness. That is empty spaces to ponder the songwriting, the questions asked about mistakes made and growing up. In some way, it’s a genius personification in sound of what the stillness of night is all about.

For all those out there who have sat at midnight and thought about life, you now have a soundtrack to accompany you.

Words by Scott Hastie and Tipped by Simon Pursehouse

Benedict Benjamin was originally featured on June 20th with words from Eugenie Johnson

View the full TOTT 2016 countdown HERE