“Ben Garnett has a beautiful, curious, deep mind.”

— Chris Eldridge (Punch Brothers)

“Ben is one of a new strain of acoustic guitarists emerging today.”

— Mike Marshall

“Newgrass and new acoustic music have been thriving for 50 years now, long enough that you think you’ve heard it all, until a Ben Garnett comes along to show us how much more there might be.”

— Premier Guitar

With his debut record Imitation Fields, composer-guitarist Ben Garnett makes a distinct and vibrant entry as a solo artist into the world of American acoustic music. Blending the traditions of string band, jazz, electronica, classical, and avant-garde, Garnett forges a sonic tapestry all his own.

Produced by Chris Eldridge (Punch Brothers/Chris Eldridge & Julian Lage) and featuring fiddlers Brittany Haas and Billy Contreras, bassist Paul Kowert (Punch Brothers), banjoist Matthew Davis, and mandolinist Dominick Leslie (as well as a string quintet and additional guitar by Eldridge), Imitation Fields unites some of the acoustic scene’s most exciting and inventive players in service of a new musical vision.

“Ben’s music is undergirded by rich, colorful jazz language,” bassist Paul Kowert explains. “And yet it’s also full of these melodies and drive that a string band can grab onto. On top of that there’s these electronic sounds incorporated into the string band orchestration, accentuating his first impulse in the music, what’s already there.” 

But for all its musical adventurousness and sophistication, Imitation Fields is as much an emotional expression as an investigation of musical detail. “This record is a really cathartic release,” Garnett says. “It is a sharing not only of musical ideas, but of my life experiences, the forces which have shaped me. It’s an attempt to share an honest story.”

Born 1994 in Dallas/Fort Worth, Garnett studied jazz at the University of North Texas, majoring in jazz guitar performance (2016). Halfway through his studies, however, Garnett discovered a new calling. “I stumbled on this world of contemporary acoustic music and quickly went down a rabbit hole,” Garnett says. Soon, Garnett was chasing the music of Tony Rice, David Grisman, Mike Marshall, Darol Anger, Edgar Meyer, Strength in Numbers, Punch Brothers, Väsen, Grant Gordy, and more. 

“It felt like a light switch,” says Garnett. “This was music at the nexus of jazz, bluegrass, singer-songwriter, classical, old-time, world-folk, that so clearly merged an array of values. These musicians were communicating things I had been craving in music from as early as I can remember. It was a calling, I knew from then on I wanted to be an acoustic musician.”

Perhaps the most profound influence on Garnett’s playing and musical sensibility was none other than his future producer, Chris Eldridge—particularly Eldridge’s two acoustic collaborations with jazz guitar virtuoso Julian Lage, Avalon (2014) and Mount Royal (2017). “It’s sort of unexplainable,” Garnett recalls. “It was so profound to me how much genuine joy was being immediately transmitted through the music. And at no loss to sheer virtuosity, dense compositions, and mind blowing improvisation.” 

This seamless interweaving of musical complexity and emotional earnestness set the standard for Garnett—and sits at the heart of Imitation Fields. To this end, enlisting Eldridge as producer was equal parts dream and no-brainer. When Eldridge agreed—with the unequivocal “absolutely”—the pieces all began falling into place. “I’ll never forget,” Garnett says. “It was a dream come true.”

Soon, Eldridge and Garnett scoured through Garnett’s repertoire and assembled a proper track list. It was crucial to both producer and composer, however, that the record reflect a new entry in the acoustic scene, not simply an homage to Eldridge’s influence. Says Garnett, “I knew early on I wanted some kind of X factor to influence this record. I wasn’t sure what exactly, but I knew it was in me. It didn’t feel right to make some kind of ‘Avalon’ recreation, or even a record that sat too close to the acoustic music I had absorbed to that point.”

Enter electronic manipulation. “I’ve always been obsessed with musicians like Björk, Thom Yorke, The Books, etc. Music you might now call ‘Folktronica.’ It was thrilling, and felt new, to bring elements of that music into the acoustic space.” This was an avenue Eldridge immediately endorsed–and the passion only grew. “It dawned on me,” Garnett recalls, “how odd it seems that music with any kind of electronics often gets the label of ‘new’ or ‘cutting edge,’ whereas any music with bluegrass or string band influence is seen as ‘traditional,’ even ‘nostalgic.’ For comparison, both musics more or less arose out of a similar time, with the first experiments in electronic music being made in the late 1940’s, the same decade Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys were recording their first landmark recordings with Columbia Records.”

The path of Imitation Fields is defined by verve and adventure, ranging from the electro-magnetic free group improvisation of the title track to the fiery avant-Flamenco-grass rocketship “Thirty One Mouths,” from the gorgeously sinister dream of “Moriarty” to the adventurous movie scene-like soundscape of “Nepal.” Closing with an imaginative string quartet arrangement of the jazz standard “What Is This Thing Called Love?” and an austere and interactive meditation, “Blue Thread,” this debut spans a vast musical territory without leaving the authenticity of Garnett’s compositional and instrumental voice.

“There’s something profoundly humbling and rewarding about staying true to what you have and using it to connect with others,” Garnett concludes. “I find this to be the beauty of expressing oneself in any context, our ability to share. I see this sentiment as core to the music on Imitation Fields—which I now seek to hand off and share with you.”

Producer’s note

Ben Garnett has a beautiful, curious, deep mind. Given that he came to the stringband world after he had already formed himself into a sophisticated, accomplished musician, I feel like Ben has always approached stringband music from two different angles: one as a player/music-lover/student filled with true respect and awe for the earthy, simple power at the music’s core; and another as a person who clearly sees oceans of possibility waiting to be explored and tapped, unburdened by tradition-through-osmosis. From that angle, why wouldn’t we create an electronic soundscape to interact with an acoustic one recorded live by an extraordinary band in front of microphones? And once that question had been asked, then the question became: how do we holistically integrate the electronic and the acoustic together so that each element acts as a unique thread weaving together with these other seemingly antonymous threads to create a single fabric of music? I’m proud of Ben and what he came up with. The compositions are beautiful, the playing is rich and the fabric is original. Working on this album together was a true joy.

 —Chris Eldridge