Richard Dyer-Bennet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Richard Dyer-Bennet (October 6, 1913, Leicester, England - December 14, 1991, Monterey, Massachusetts) was an English-born American folk singer (or his own preferred term, "minstrel"), recording artist, and voice teacher.

Richard Dyer-Bennet at home in Massachusetts

Dyer-Bennet studied voice with Gertrude Wheeler Beckman and Sven Scholander, and from the first made his living singing. During his peak performance years, he gave 50 concerts a year. He recorded extensively for many labels, and eventually founded his own, Dyer-Bennet Records, and recorded in his own living room. The albums he recorded on his own label have been re-released on CD by Smithsonian Folkways. The CD Richard Dyer-Bennet 1 includes a biographical essay written by Dyer-Bennet's daughter, Bonnie, which highlights his progressive politics and his battle with a debilitating stroke in later life (he taught himself to play harp one-handed so that he could continue to perform and teach).

A biography - Richard Dyer-Bennet: The Last Minstrel - by Paul O Jenkins was published in December 2009 by the University Press of Mississippi. The book chronicles Dyer-Bennet's eventful life and includes a foreword by his daughter.

Discography

Dyer-Bennet Records releases

1949: Richard Dyer-Bennet: Twentieth Century Minstrel (Decca DLP 5046)
1955: Richard Dyer-Bennet 1
1956: Richard Dyer-Bennet 2
1956: Richard Dyer-Bennet 3
1957: Richard Dyer-Bennet 4
1958: Richard Dyer-Bennet 5: Requests
1958: Richard Dyer-Bennet 6: Songs With Young People in Mind
1958: Richard Dyer-Bennet 7: Beethoven Scottish and Irish Songs
1959: Richard Dyer-Bennet 8: Gems of Minstrelsy
1960: Richard Dyer-Bennet 9
1962: Mark Twain's 1601
1962: Richard Dyer-Bennet 10
1962: Richard Dyer-Bennet 11: Stephen Foster Songs
1964: Richard Dyer-Bennet 12: Songs of Ships, Seafaring Men, Watery Graves...and One Edible Rat
1964: Richard Dyer-Bennet 13: Stories and Songs for Children and Their Parents

Folkways Records releases

1967: The Asch Recordings, 1939 to 1945 - Vol. 2 (Folkways Records)
All the Dyer-Bennet Records releases have been re-released by Smithsonian Folkways.

Bibliography

1970: The Richard Dyer-Bennet Folk Song Book. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Videography

1980: The Odyssey

External links

Authority control	VIAF: 60412015 ISNI: 0000 0001 1876 8059 BNF: cb139979276

Persondata
Name	Dyer-Bennet, Richard
Alternative names
Short description	American musician
Date of birth	October 6, 1913
Place of birth
Date of death	December 14, 1991
Place of death

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.