Artist review: Ben Minnotte

Ben Minnotte -- Minn-Knot [LP]

By Jeanie Straub
Colorado Music Buzz

You won’t believe what you are hearing: The music of Denver singer/songwriter Ben Minnotte is absolutely angelic. He’s got the voice of a sexier Lou Reed atop fine guitar work and other instrumentation of the Folk-Rock-meets-experimental variety. His brand of Experimental is reminiscent of Leonard Cohen; it’s got keen insight, the work here is meaningful, downright artful. Minnotte himself plays acoustic and electric guitars, steel guitars, keyboard, the mandolin, banjo, bass, even some drums and other percussion, and he’s an overall brilliant instrumentalist. (Note that Zack Morris plays drums on all but a couple tracks.) Influenced by artists such as Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, and Kate Bush, Minnotte has a sound that is retro yet very much alive in the present and is both forward thinking and forward moving. It is joy-playful yet steel-solid, muscle-y complex, and August-easy. (Extra credit for sustaining my interest with his lyrics, a copy of which you can get by emailing him – nice to offer that connection to fans.) If you’ve never heard of him, know that he’s actually been a fixture in the Denver music scene for a decade, but spent Sept. 26 to Dec. 18 of last year working on his “studio artist” profile, which is good for you and me because this 14-track album is as good as it gets.

Sounds like: Lou Reed, Leonard Cohen
MySpace.com/BenMinnotteMusic