Betty Benedeadly’s sound all started with the acquisition of a “banjitar.” A solid reflection of the name, it’s an instrument that’s part banjo and part guitar, and it’s become an integral part of Benedeadly’s sound, which is a dose of reverb-drenched, dusty and high-desert, instrumental roots rock that’s taken a lap through a pool of reverb. It’s groovy, it’s psychedelic, it’s twangy, and with the title of her solo effort being “Groove Psych Twang,” which dropped back in March, the album title appropriately describes the sound.
As a founding member and guitar player for the band Sheverb, Benedeadly’s no stranger to the spaghetti western and tripped out surf vibe, and the banjitar has pushed that sound into a more psychedelic groove with an electro and world beat.
If you go
WHAT: Betty Benedeadly plays groove-psych-twang.
WHEN: 7 p.m. Aug. 21.
WHERE: Jimmy’s Main Room, 1239 Main Ave.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.jimmysmusic.supply.
Betty Benedeadly will perform locally on Aug. 21, taking the stage with fiddle player Sarah Millenary in Jimmy’s Main Room at Jimmy’s Music & Supply in downtown Durango.
For Betty, the banjitar was a fantastic discovery.
“Yeah, I didn’t know one existed,” she said. “I wandered into a little instrument shop in Austin, Texas, South Austin Music, and they had one, and I started playing, and I just felt like everything that came out my little fingertips belonged on the neck of that weird instrument.”
Benedeadly’s been turning over musical stones of discovery since she was a kid. The common, classic rock path that most music lovers have rambled down led to punk and garage rock. On that well-worn path surf-rock was uncovered, leading to all things instrumental, ultimately revealing film scores from the Mancini or Morricone realm.
“Somewhere along the way, I picked up and held on to the influences that I wanted to keep tucked away in my heart and spit out into something that made me happy,” Benedeadly said. “That’s what I’m doing now. And this latest album in particular is a collection of songs that were all really worked out after acquiring a seven-string banjitar. So, this was kind of a fun chapter because it really was marked by discovering a new instrument to channel all those influences and sounds through.”
While Sheverb called Austin, Texas, home, when not on the road, Benedeadly was hanging her hat more and more in northern New Mexico. When the solo efforts of The Betty Benedeadly Band were signed to the Albuquerque-based record label Desert Records, she moved, the new area becoming a source of songwriting inspiration.
“The landscape was the muse. So I would do most of my songwriting up here on those kinds of extended late nights under the open sky. And it has been a constant muse,’ she said. "And I guess now that I’m here, it’s amplified in that I’m getting to collaborate more regularly with other musicians who are drawn to the same thing. Yeah, it’s all in there.”
Music is for mental transportation, as the sound can take you to the place. Put on the Clash or the Jam and you’re carried to London or grittier parts of industrial England. Serge Gainsbourg and Edith Piaf take you to Paris, The Ramones, Run DMC and the Beastie Boys will drop you in New York City, and Fela Kuti gets you to West Africa.
Betty Benedeadly’s sound will get you to the vast landscapes of the American Southwest, for when you drop the needle onto “Groove Psych Twang” in a place like Rockville, Maryland, you’re off to northern New Mexico.
“I think one of my biggest compliments is when people hear the music, like anywhere in the world, and they say they feel a sense of being transported to that experience of a big open desert night, because that is what I hope to have channeled and be sending out there,” Benedeadly said. “I love when other people feel it.”
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
