In 1984 I was a fledgling music student just beginning classical guitar studies at UCSC in Santa Cruz. I noticed an ad in the campus paper for a classical guitar concert with Benjamin Verdery, a musician I had not heard of before. So I went to the concert and was inspired, humbled, intrigued, and moved on a very deep level by the extraordinary artistry of this young guitarist. I took a chance and went backstage to meet him and after the usual nice to meet you great concert smalltalk he said to me 'hey do you have a car?'. I said yes and asked why and he said 'I really need a cigarette and some M&M's". So we loaded into my red Plymouth Duster, headed into the town, and ended up talking for hours about music and life and love and all things. A lifelong friendship was born.
This album with Ben Verdery, is available at Gourd Music.
William Coulter and Ben Verdery have found a unique and energizing partnership.Their space is made of acoustic strings. Strings have their own kind of chemistry, and steel and nylon played together have their own subtle dynamic and exchange. They talk back and forth, like old friends who don’t get together as often as they’d like to.
Something original is going on. Part of it is the mix of strings themselves – one guitar strung with steel, another strung with nylon. We seldom hear this. Ben Verdery says that he tried it once before, in a couple of tunes recorded years back with Leo Kottke. It makes a very pleasing mix of textures, like silk laid next to satin. One helps to define the other.
But the more important chemistry is what the performers release in one another as they play. Bill Coulter and Ben Verdery have found a unique and energizing partnership. What we get from Bill & Ben is a guitar performance at its most intimate. There is heart here and a meditative quality. Each musician goes inward to his still center, in order to come outward with a shared sound that is masterful yet vulnerable.
