Ben Eldridge

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Ben Eldridge, (born August 15, 1938) is a five-string banjo player and a founding member of the seminal bluegrass group The Seldom Scene. He also works as a mathematician. Eldridge is best known for his scat singing on "Lay Down Sally."

Biography

Ben Eldridge was born in Richmond, Virginia. He began playing the guitar at age ten and later in 1954 the banjo. In 1957, he began his studies at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. Four years later he moved to Adelphi, Maryland. Eldridge became acquainted with Bill Keith and Bill Emerson who were to become two major banjo picking influences in his life.

In June 1970, Eldridge joined "Cliff Waldron and his New Shades of Grass". Eldridge was among five musicians who started playing in the fall of 1971 with mandolinist John Duffey, Dobro player Mike Auldridge, bassist Tom Gray and guitar and lead singer John Starling. They would ultimately be known as The Seldom Scene. Duffey had quit playing professionally a short while earlier, to resume his career as a luthier and stay at home, so the conditions under which the band played were that they would not make a run for commercial success, and everybody kept their day jobs. By early 1972 they had a weekly gig at Bethesda, Maryland's Red Fox Inn that stretched for six years. Later they moved the weekly performance to Thursdays at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia, just across the Potomac River. Starling finished his medical residency and moved to Alabama to practice medicine, but The Seldom Scene continued with a series of other accomplished guitar players. Gray eventually left to continue his career in cartography, and Auldridge later left the band. Duffey died unexpectedly in 1996, after which Ben Eldridge was the only original member left, where he continues as of February 2013.

Eldridge plays on all Seldom Scene albums, and his discography includes 55 albums. Eldridge contributed to solo albums by Mike Auldridge and Phil Rosenthal (who had succeeded John Starling), and he and other members of The Seldom Scene famously backed Linda Ronstadt in a few numbers on her early, more country-flavored albums.

Ben's son, Chris, currently plays with Chris Thile's project, Punch Brothers, and, occasionally, with the Seldom Scene.

References

Tony Trischka, Pete Wernick, Masters of the 5-string Banjo, Oak Publications, (1988)

v t e The Seldom Scene

Ben Eldridge Lou Reid Dudley Connell Ronnie Simpkins Fred Travers John Duffey Mike Auldridge Tom Gray John Starling Phil Rosenthal T. Michael Coleman Moondi Klein

Studio albums	Act I (1972) Act II (1973) Act III (1973) Old Train (1973) The New Seldom Scene Album (1976) Baptizing (1978) Act IV (1979) After Midnight (1981) At the Scene (1983) Blue Ridge (1985) A Change of Scenery (1988) Scenic Roots (1990) Like We Used to Be (1994) Dream Scene (1996) Scene It All (2000 Scenechronized (2007)

Live albums	Live at The Cellar Door (1975) 15th Anniversary Celebration (1986) Scene 20: 20th Anniversary Concert (1992)

Compilation albums	The Best of The Seldom Scene, Vol. 1 (1987) Different Roads (2007)

Collaboration albums	Blue Ridge (1985)

Persondata
Name	Eldridge, Ben
Alternative names
Short description	American banjo player
Date of birth	August 15, 1938
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death

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