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About Benny Guitar Carr & The Hot Rats
This is some more detail about myself and my band. I grew up on the outskirts of London near Maidenhead and moved to Devon as a teenager. It was in devon working behind the bar of The Royal Oak I was lucky enough to meet hundreds of fantastic world class musicians from literally everywhere. I learnt to play guitar in my spare time when when I was not working, I was completely under the spell of such musicians as T-Bone Walker, Johnny Copland, The Allman Brothers and Elmore James. I also loved to paint. I started to gain confidence with some ambitions to perform. I took my guitar all around Europe when I was 19. It was on this trip I saw the great BB King and Clarence Gate Mouth Brown at the Montreux Jazz Festival. There were many great sights on this trip, however this was one of the best for me. I had some lucky breaks including an acting role for Curved Air's legendary violinist Darryl Way & Stephen Crook's MTV production for a music video called 'The Lovers'. During this project I played a lead acting role, with no words and just had to do as I was directed. The video was aired 4 or 5 times a day on Classical MTV for a couple of years. It still gives me the Heebie-jeebies to watch this, however I am very proud to of been part of it as Darryl and Stephen are fantastic musicians and artists.You can see the video if you click on this link Amongst all the great things I have been lucky enough to of experienced so far in my music career, one has been privilege to of recorded my album with Vince Lee and my band at PMC studios. You can hear some of the music on this link Since then I've been involved in some other projects including an art exhibition at the International Jazz and Blues Festival in Plymouth. I created a series of paintings of my favourite blues artists. You can see some of the artwork of that display if you click here!
As a solo artist I perform a mixture of slide guitar styles including blues, jazz, folk and some more international phrasing. I play a resophonic tricone guitar which leads itself beautifully to Hawaiian and delta blues. I play regular gigs around Devon and Cornwall. In 2012 I performed over 230 gigs with the ambition to try and establish myself as a musician. This year in 2013 I hope to improve, record and travel some more. Through my music I hope to celebrate blues heroes such as Bessie Smith, Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy, Robert Johnson and Howlin' Wolf as well as some of the great crooners of jazz, from Bing Crosby to modern day artists such Tom Waits.
About The Hot Rats I also front the funky rockin' blues band 'Benny Guitar Carr & The Hot Rats'. The band is made up of Aly Day, myself Ben Carr and Tom Carr. We have performed at various festivals locally including the International Jazz & Blues Festival in Plymouth and the Ashburton Fringe Blues Festival. Whilst touring we have shared the stage with some world class artists such as Otis Taylor, Tony Joe White, The Wild Cards and Johnny Dickinson. In 2006 Benny Guitar Carr & The Hot Rats recorded a 13 track album with local musician extraordinaire Vince Lee. The album has been critically acclaimed by the music press and played on radio stations all over the world. As an illustrator and animator, I create some original artwork for my self penned songs - including International Man Of Mystery
The band plays as a hot guitar & vocal/bass/drums 3 piece and also as a bigger line up including saxophone and keyboards. Driven by energetic big band style drumming, we deliver are own fresh hard hitting sounds with big funky grooves and infectious walking bass lines, punctuated by soulful vocals, electrifying guitar leads. We play a sensational funky blues sound, which people have compared to the work presented by The Chess Record Label. No matter where you come from, no matter what the weather The Hot Rats will get you up and dancing.
Bookings The Hot Rats are available for bookings. Please contact details below. Mobile: 07988616035 |
