since Hart was a child, called to inform Mickey that he was running a music store in Carlos, Cali- fornia called Hart Music. He invited his son to come out and work with him. Pretty soon, the store was in full swing,


and they started needing teachers. Joe was the only guitarist Mickey knew. He called Joe, and said “hey, come on out.” Joe had gotten married, and was living near Cannon’s Campground. He took a look around and decided nothing was hap- pening at home, and decided to go for it. Joe spent about three years in the mid-


sixties living out in California, teaching and gig- ging around with Mickey and others. Joe’s wife was never happy on the West coast, so he ended up coming back home to Spartanburg. Between 1971 and 1981, Joe returned


home to Spartanburg to teach guitar, serving some 250-300 students weekly, while authoring a text book, Joe Bennett’s Guitar in the Rock Mode. In 1988 he moved to Alaska to do some work as an air traffic controller, write music, and explore the Alaskan wilds. He recently returned home to Spartanburg to teach guitar once again, while still churning out original music. Joe feels very strongly about his home town, as well as the plethora of musicians that have come out of Spar- tanburg. “I gotta tell you something. We traveled a


lot, and then I went in the Air Force and traveled a lot, but this area, and I’d say Spartanburg in particular, has more really good pickers than I’ve ever seen in one place. It’s like a little Nashville. There’s something about the area that motivates people to play the guitar. You know, there was a guy named Hank Garland, one of the jazz greats. He was the first one to come out of Spartanburg and become famous, really. And then there was Buck Trent, and Bobby Thompson, who is one of the super session men in Nashville now. And there were others, Dale Burgess, Rusty Milner, who plays with the Marshall Tucker Band now, and Stuart Swanlund. I taught a lot of these guys. And then there’s Ronald Radford, who played with Randy Travis, another great player. There are so many who will come in here in their greasy work clothes and pull one off the wall and smoke it for a while and then go back to work. A lot of people are content to just get together and jam, and have fun, and that’s okay too.”


These days, Joe Bennett can be found,


most days, teaching guitar at Smith’s. He still has a passion for the instrument, and the people who play it.


“Here’s where we have problems with mu-


sicians around here. Most of them are good cover people. They can play other peoples licks, but they can’t make any money at it. But they be- come so influenced by it, that when they do go to do original stuff, it comes out as a warmed over version of the player they’ve been listening too. With my particular stuff, I was playing horn licks on the guitar. In those days, there weren’t any guitar licks to copy. I listened to Bill Haley and the Comets. I also listened to a lot of country music. I cut my teeth on country, and we were rockabilly - we had the two part harmony, me and Sparky - we were sort of a rock and roll Everly Brothers. It was just a lot of fun.”


An Exclusive Interview with Joe Bennett


What's life like for Joe Bennett these days? Teaching at Smith Music in Spartanburg....writ- ing weekly. I have a new Christmas album on Hendersonentertainment.com. I wrote eleven of the twelve songs. Songs recorded by One-eyed Jack on liquidaudio.com. Also others of mine (new stuff) are on that site for download. My fam- ily and I are in good health thank goodness...my youngest is daughter Lindsay in Middle school. Little Joe, 14, is in his first year high school, they are great kids.


Do The Sparkletones still play gigs? Tell us about 'em. Yep...we play at least once a year at Sparkletones day at Cannons Elementary School. We’d like to go out a few times annually if the price was right. Everyone still has great chops and for some old guys, we can still kick pretty good!


Where did you record the new track for the Rockabilly Hall of Fame cd? “Old Time Rock and Roller” was recorded at Hen- derson Entertainment studios here in Spartan- burg. State of the art studio. Me and a drum machine.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52