Artists:Ben Schmidt

Visionary lyricist and outstanding acoustic finger-style guitar wizard, Ben Schmidt, has released two self-produced Cd's, "Write it down" released in 2002, and "While you were Sleeping" released in 2005.

His warm, versatile voice, alternately sweet and dark, colors compositions from ballads to blues. Called "an extraordinary talent" and "the total package" by music critic Jim Musser (No Depression), Ben is influenced by a vast range of musicians and musical genres, most prominently folk and Mississippi delta blues. Of "Write It Down", Musser says, "You'll hear elements of John Gorka, Jesse Winchester, Kelly Joe Phelps and, on the slipped-rhythm fun-house 'Dance That Dance,' doses of Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen." He calls "While You Were Sleeping" "a pillar to post gem".

Schmidt's latest CD, "While You Were Sleeping", was released in July of 2005. Cohesive and musically intricate, "While You Were Sleeping" speaks to contemporary issues in our culture, and gives a mature voice to classic themes of love and loss. A prolific songwriter, Ben has two other CDs in the works. The first is a collection of solos for guitar interspersed with works for guitar and voice, the other a continuation of the work started in the first two discs.

Self-taught, thirty-three year-old Schmidt has been playing guitar for over 20 years and writing songs since he was fifteen. The landscapes of his songs draw equally from his upbringing in Chicago, as well as his current home in Iowa City, Iowa. Ben is a favorite of Eastern Iowa public radio stations and is a featured artist on WSUI's Java Blend compilation CD, as well as KUNI's Best of Live from Studio One compilation disc. In addition to enjoying national radio airplay, Ben plays regularly throughout the Midwest and has opened for and performed with a variety of other artists, including Kelly Joe Phelps, Peter Mulvey, Edie Carey and Alistair Moock..