| Bill Benzel came to CHS and the '14 well into the Senior year. Although, as Bill notes" I'm not a professional musician -- I have a day job as a corporate wage slave -- I got into what used to be called "data processing" -- now is "information technology" and have had a long and productive career building sand castles on the latest and greatest machines with the latest and greatest software... the music is therapy".
Bill used to perform with Saul Broudy at a coffeehouse called The Kabuki on Walnut Street. Of Saul, Bill says "he's a great guy and a mainstay of American Folk Music. He and I chatted a few years ago". Bill is an accomplished acoustic guitarist from Carlsbad, California who plays a 'mellow' instrument. His musical repertoire speaks for itself. "Bill has been writing and arranging for solo acoustic guitar since early 2000. Bill's music is usually written at the beaches in San Diego county and his personal style is best described as "Tamarack Slack" -- though it's really more a state of mind than a style. Bill first picked up a guitar in 1963 while working as a camp counselor and was a "folkie" in the late '60s and early '70s. He was an original member of the Philadelphia avant garde group 'High Treason'. Bill notes that "for whatever reason, he stopped playing and became a listener for 25 years during which time he didn't go to Woodstock, raced motorcycles, flew stunt kites, brewed beer, married, parented, and listened to a lot of music. It was an introduction to Hawaiian slack key by a friend coupled with a find of a really nice guitar that gave Bill the inspiration to start over. His influences are Pete Seeger, Rev. Gary Davis, Andres Segovia, The Beatles, John Fahey, Tom Rapp, Daevid Allen, Ray Kane, Led Kaapana, Dennis Kamakahi, D. R. Auten,and Jim Earp to name a few. Every note heard played by another musician, as well as every sound produced by nature or man, has an influence. It's just a matter of degree. Imagine yourself on the left coast, walking along a somewhat deserted beach that's populated by a few occasional sunbathers. You look out toward the horizon to see a couple of surfers, patiently awaiting the next set. And you come across a guy sitting, playing guitar. You stop to listen, barely able to hear the instrument above the pounding of the surf. As you listen you sense that he is playing to the ocean and the ocean is drumming and listening, drumming and listening. He is repeating short phrases over and over, not exactly practicing but changing the expression with each repeat as he adjusts to the rhythmic changes he hears coming back from the surf. One of the surfers pops up on his board and the guy's involvement with the music ceases as his attention shifts. He watches the surfer for a few moments, then notices you and the two of you begin a conversation. He explains that these little fragments you've been hearing come in, windborne, from the crests of the waves. He plays them as they come to get them under his fingers. They then get tucked away in muscle memory and, later, he will organize them into longer phrases and then organize the longer phrases into instrumental songs.
You smile and wish the guy well. He nods and, before waving goodbye as you walk off, he tells you that the ocean is a perfect playing partner. The ocean never stops drumming and never stops listening". Click on to CHS Links and visit his website for a taste of true acoustical guitar treasure.(Courtesy of the Bill Benzel website on MySpace)
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