James Benton

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At the age of twenty-five James Benton left the foothills of Kentucky and moved into the Chelsea Hotel in NYC, spending much of his days there writing poetry in the lobby or his dingy 6th floor room, usually with a cheap bottle of Carlo Rossi at arms reach. He admits now that the poems written during this period were on the most part very bad, infused with a sort of cheap wine-blurred observation of his haunted, eccentric world inside the smoke stained walls of the the Chelsea. During his stay there, he was given an acoustic guitar that had been hidden away in a back room by a night clerk and took it as a sign that he should start playing again and perhaps give the poetry a little rest. After a series of rather painfully unbearable jobs that included a short gig at a criminal telemarketing firm on 5th Avenue he landed a position at The Bottom Line working as a host. “The pay was shit, but they fed me pretty good burgers and I was able to hear and meet some great musicians, including Keith Richards, Suzanne Vega, David Johansen and Odetta; the latter, actually giving me a verbal blessing as she exited the door one night. However, the money I had stolen out of my Father’s suitcase ran out with a quickness living out my little dream and I finally found myself facing the cold and nauseating reality of having to move into the YMCA around the corner, and I became confronted by guys knocking on my door in the middle of the night whispering through the thin door what they intended to do with me while the cockroaches trekked over the ceiling and walls. I only stayed one night.”

He then moved into a dank, rodent infested, closet like space on the upper west side where the views consisted of watching an occupied body bag being transported down his dark hallway and PCP crazed guys convulsing on the sidewalks; becoming one of them after being invited to smoke a little "something" by a young hispanic guy one night. New York was quickly becoming more of a place to leave than to try and live out a dream, so he headed to the Florida Keys, hanging with some old hippies and young Dead Heads for an extended period. He then took the long road to N. California where he settled in and started writing poetry again and reading at the open mics at the old Jambalaya Bar in Arcata. It was there one morning on the town square in Arcata beneath the flag pole where he had a chance meeting with John Trudell. This event was the inspiration for the song “The Crime” on Heavy Hearts

James only began performing publicly in 1997, two years after moving to the island of Crete with some encouragement from a close friend there and began writing profusely both poetry and songs. Several gigs and a radio show later, he took off northward to the mountains in the South of France where he now lives and recently recorded Heavy Hearts, his self released debut album.

The project features James on lead vocals and guitar, Régis Abbal on bass, mandolin and dobro; Bernard Ariu, accordion; Mark Griffin, drums/percussion; Max Middleton, who has worked with such giants as Beck, Kate Bush, Jeff Beck, etc., provided the keyboards on "Mary Under" and "Thought It Was Best" and the talented Maiuko providing the backing vocals on "Broken Dreams". The chief engineer was Paul Lilly, who has been responsible for engineering live sound for such musical greats as Elvis Costello, Chris Rhea and Squeeze.

James is also currently working to complete a documentary he directed about a group of Rom (gypsies) who are being oppressed by the French government, taking care of his little cat, and writing some more songs.

(UPCOMING SHOWS BEING SCHEDULED FOR 2009)