I have never heard of Ben Rudnick – let alone his friends – but I am going to start watching for them after listening to their latest album and interviewing him. I arranged an interview with Ben Rudnick & Friends to talk about their new album, Grace’s Bell. The album comes out in late February.

I think I accidentally offended him by referring to the music as “children’s music” and for that I apologize. The best part for me was the fun exchange about vowels. That’s right, I said it. Vowels rock but discrimination against consonants is wrong too.

How long have you been recording music?  

I started recording music in 1988. I had been traveling through Europe with a backpack for about three months and one of the things I decided I really wanted to do when I got back to the States was to record some of my own music. Actually hearing something akin to what I heard in my head was proof that I wasn’t just hearing things! After that John (Zevos, a mandolin player) and I played in a bluegrass band together and recorded an album but I really didn’t record anything else until we started Emily Songs in 2000. Grace’s Bell makes our fourth full-blown studio recording! 

How has your music changed over the years? 

The music I think up and create has matured a bit over the years. By matured I don’t mean more stodgy and adult-like, but at this point I’ve been writing songs for almost 30 years. After all that time, I have more experience writing songs and playing music. I’m always trying to learn new approaches to music, new techniques and styles.  I’m always listening to new music and searching out old music I’m curious about. As an example, I was taking jazz lessons and got comfortable with some guitar chords I hadn’t learned before.

You can hear some of those chords in the bridge of “Rocket Ship Man” on Blast Off or in the chord changes in “Sally Salamander” and “Twisting Low” on Fun and Games. Or, I just love listening to Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits. You can hear some of his influence in the instrumental sections of the song “Grace’s Bell.” So, I guess the quick answer is, it seems like the music just gets richer in quality and I’ve gotten better at both saying and playing what I am intending to project.  

A great example of how our music has changed over the years is “Cowgirl Song.” We recorded “Cowgirl Song” on our first recording, Emily Songs. After six years we decided to rerecord it from scratch for Grace’s Bell. This time around it features Buddy Cage of the New Riders of the Purple Sage playing pedal steel guitar and all the growth in our playing and perspective during that time. Check it out!