Biography

Contact Information:

Tim Bennett 714/499-4091
tbennettmusic@gmail.com

Click here to go to the NEW release from Tim Bennett – The Whistler’s Father Recordimgs

Click here to go to Tim Bennett – The View From Here

“Inevitable Discovery”
Release Date: October 10, 2016

While Inevitable Discovery is by no means a straight-out blues album, it definitely has a good share of blues influenced songs. I had the opportunity to work in the studio with the same group of musicians that had played on “Highly Irregular” and to record songs that hadn’t made the cut for that album mostly because of the blues influence. And I got to play a little more harmonica.

Now there is also a country influence with Black Lace being straight country and Security a country waltz. Trouble is country blues.

I have come to believe that applying genre to music constrains that music to listeners that might appreciate it. I’m an independent artist playing indie music. From Blues to Country, Bluegrass to Rock, Folk to Pop; each and every kind of music has influenced mine.

Recorded by: Keith Taylor at Custom Taylored Studios, Fountain Valley, CA
Mastered by: Keith Taylor at Custom Taylored Studios, Fountain Valley, CA
Graphic Design by: Tim Bennett

Order of Songs on Inevitable Discovery

1. It Must Be True (3:26) (Featured Track)

Songwriter: Timothy K Bennett
Publisher/PRO: tbennettmusic, ASCAP
Administered by: Tunecore
Release Date: August 11, 2017

Musicians:
Tim Bennett - lead vocal & rhythm guitar
Bradley Baker harmony vocal
Amber Mercomes harmony vocal
Sir Louisharmony vocal
Rick White – lead electric guitar
Hal Ratliff - piano
Ernie Nunez – bass
Roger Gillespie – drums

The melody and the guitar riff for It Must Be True was originally written for someone else’s lyrics but declined for being too bluesy. Fine with me. I’ll write my own lyrics.

The 2016 Presidential campaign influenced the first two verses about gossip and political promises. Then one morning while watching the local TV news, I noticed how “Breaking News” was often incomplete or inaccurate primarily because of the rush to get it on the air. Reporters used phases like, “We really don’t know”, “We are waiting for confirmation”, or even “No one knows yet…”. Get it right the first time because there’s a difference between news and gossip..



2. Heaven or Hell (3:49) (Featured Track)

Songwriter: Timothy K Bennett
Publisher/PRO: tbennettmusic, ASCAP
Administered by: Tunecore
Release Date: August 11, 2017

Musicians:
Tim Bennett - lead vocal & rhythm guitar
Rick White – lead electric guitar
Hal Ratliff – keyboards
Dan Cartmell - finger-style guitar and harmony vocal
RJ Williams – harmony vocal
Ernie Nunez – bass
Roger Gillespie – drums

Heaven or Hell is about depression and the spiral into self-loathing and doubt. It’s a song originally written in the early 1970’s but I hadn’t completed. Another song that needed a bridge.

Heaven or Hell is one of the songs from the January 2014 sessions that was not included on “Higher Irregular”, at least not this version. Rick White’s electric guitar makes this song what I had originally conceived, a searing expression of pain.


3. I Don’t Want To Do This Anymore (4:22) (Featured Track)

Songwriter: Timothy K Bennett
Publisher/PRO: tbennettmusic, ASCAP
Administered by: Tunecore
Release Date: August 11, 2017

Musicians:
Tim Bennett - lead vocal
Hal Ratliff – piano
Rick White – electric guitar
Ernie Nunez – bass
Roger Gillespie – drums

I Don’t Want To Do This Anymore was a phrase I had heard in films and TV dramas regarding relationships, jobs, and addictions. I used to take a walk in the morning and afternoon on breaks at my non-musical day job. The phrase got in my head as I walked and I knew it was about my current occupation.

For the first time I can remember, I actually approached a tune with the craft of songwriting in mind. I had to choose what it was I didn’t want to do anymore. There was a big basket to pick from; waking up on the floor hung-over or wasted, staying at a job I hated, staying in a bad relationship or staying in a relationship with someone you kept finding passed out on the floor. The relationship foundering had a broader appeal.

I consciously avoided mentioning family or kids in the lyric because that would narrow the scope as well. “We don’t have much in common. Maybe we did once but that’s gone” was originally “Maybe just the kids but they’ve grown.”

I heard this melody with a Floyd Cramer feel and the legendary Nashville sound piano he was famous for. Hal Ratliff brought that sound to this recording. And for good measure, the second solo was designed to evoke Ray Charles’ style on his classic country songs. Country R&B.



4. Wrap Your Head Around It (3:13) (Featured Track)

Songwriter: Timothy K Bennett
Publisher/PRO: tbennettmusic, ASCAP
Administered by: Tunecore
Release Date: August 11, 2017

Musicians:
Tim Bennett - lead vocal & rhythm guitar
Bradley Baker harmony vocal
Amber Mercomes harmony vocal
Sir Louisharmony vocal
Rick White – lead electric guitar
Hal Ratliff - piano
Ernie Nunez – bass
Roger Gillespie – drums

I went to Nashville in September 2015 to attend AmericanaFest. Patty Griffin was playing a showcase at The City Winery and I made sure to see her perform. It was the same night as The Americana Music Awards at The Ryman Auditorium so I had to do some fancy shuttlin’ to make it to her show.

The house band for The Americana Music Awards was led by Buddy Miller with a grand group of Nashville session players and Bill Payne, co-founder of the band Little Feat, on piano. The back-up singers truly caught my ear. It was the first time I had heard The McCrary Sisters and I was inspired by their voices.

As luck would have it, I heard them again at The Gospel Brunch that Sunday morning, again at The City Winery. I came back from Nashville with Gospel music in my head trying to find a way out.

Wrap Your Head Around It is not a religious song though the melody and arrangement is definitely inspired by Gospel music. This song is about change in general and how you need to “wrap your head around it or get out of the way.”



5. Garbo Blues (4:04)

Songwriter: Timothy K Bennett
Publisher/PRO: tbennettmusic, ASCAP
Administered by: Tunecore
Release Date: August 11, 2017

Musicians:
Tim Bennett - lead vocal and harmonica
Hal Ratliff - piano
Dan Cartmell – finger-style guitar
Ernie Nunez – upright fretless bass
Roger Gillespie – drums


Garbo Blues is another song with some age in its origination. I wrote this in the 1970s as a straight blues tune, but the arrangement we settled on allows all the instruments to shine.



6. Damaged Goods (3:56)

Songwriter: Timothy K Bennett
Publisher/PRO: tbennettmusic, ASCAP
Administered by: Tunecore
Release Date: August 11, 2017

Musicians:
Tim Bennett - lead vocal
Hal Ratliff – keyboards
Rick White – electric guitar
Ernie Nunez – bass
Roger Gillespie – drums
Have I strayed too far?

Even Rick White who plays electric guitar on Damaged Goods wasn’t exactly sure what genre this song fit in. It’s driven by the musical hook which I came up with on the guitar. Beyond that, I just asked Rick and Hal to play some crazy sounding solos to catch the damage expressed in the lyric. I guess it’s lounge rock but I’ll just call it blues.



7. Black Lace (4:58)

Songwriter: Timothy K Bennett
Publisher/PRO: tbennettmusic, ASCAP
Administered by: Tunecore
Release Date: August 11, 2017

Musicians:
Tim Bennett - lead vocal & rhythm guitar
Rick White – lead electric guitar
Hal Ratliff - piano
Ernie Nunez – bass
Roger Gillespie – drums


Black Lace is the third of four songs I dug out of the vault for this album. I wrote this in the 1980s about a waitress who worked one of cocktail lounges we played. Other than that, this song is based on my imagination.



8. Trouble (4:03)

Songwriter: Timothy K Bennett
Publisher/PRO: tbennettmusic, ASCAP
Administered by: Tunecore
Release Date: August 11, 2017

Musicians:
Tim Bennett - lead vocal, harmonica, and rhythm guitar
Rick White – lead electric guitar
Hal Ratliff - piano
Ernie Nunez – bass
Roger Gillespie – drums

Honestly, I’ve always been attracted to women that I should have steered clear of. Trouble expresses that. The girl in the video sure looks like trouble to me.



9. Anyway (4:34)

Songwriter: Timothy K Bennett
Publisher/PRO: tbennettmusic, ASCAP
Administered by: Tunecore
Release Date: August 11, 2017

Musicians:
Tim Bennett - lead vocal and rhythm guitar
Rick White – lead electric guitar
Hal Ratliff - keyboards
Ernie Nunez – bass
Roger Gillespie – drums


Did I mention that I wrote a bunch of songs years ago and included them on this album? This is the last one of those, I promise.

I wrote Anyway in Drop D tuning on my acoustic guitar sometime after I got dumped by a girl I had been with for a few years. It was my fault but I actually thought I was doing the right thing at the time.

The lick written on my acoustic guitar is the core of what Ernie Nunez plays on bass and in Ernie’s hands, it drives the whole song.



10. Security (4:21)

Songwriter: Timothy K Bennett
Publisher/PRO: tbennettmusic, ASCAP
Administered by: Tunecore
Release Date: August 11, 2017

Musicians:
Tim Bennett - lead vocal and rhythm guitar
Rick White – lead nylon string guitar
Hal Ratliff - piano
Ernie Nunez – bass
Roger Gillespie – drums


I realized with all the songs I had written, I had never written a love song for my wife. Security is the first song I recorded at Custom Taylored Studios in December 2014. It was not included in “Highly Irregular”. It was the gift I gave my wife that Christmas.



11. They Gave Me Whiskey (3:49)

Songwriter: Timothy K Bennett
Publisher/PRO: tbennettmusic, ASCAP
Administered by: Tunecore
Release Date: August 11, 2017

Musicians:
Tim Bennett - lead vocal, harmonica, and rhythm guitar
Rick White – lead electric guitar
Hal Ratliff - keyboards
Ernie Nunez – bass
Roger Gillespie – drums


The cover band formed in 2013 drank too much. We drank during rehearsals. I began drinking whiskey during rehearsals because we drank during rehearsals. Some rehearsals ended because we had too much to drink. We drank too much.

“They gave me whiskey” was a joke of an excuse for me to use as to why I was drunk after rehearsal. It was not a good excuse. I wrote this song to get something of value out of the phrase.





Tim Bennett grew up in Southern California listening to a wide variety of music from Rock, Pop, Country, Blues, Folk, and Bluegrass.

Tim is the former lead singer/songwriter for the band Whistler’s Father, an Americana group whose independent 2015 release “Highly Irregular” received airplay in the United States and Europe. "I Really Don't Miss You At All" made the Top 40 of The Roots Music Report Americana Country Chart and reached The Top 75 on The Fan Voted Chart