Ben Bedford

"Ben Bedford isn't gunning for poet laureate of Illinois but if ever there was an equivalent honor for a singer-songwriter he'd have to be in the running."
-Roy Kasten, The Riverfront Times-St. Louis

Short biography:

In July of 2010, Bedford was named one of the “50 most significant Folk singer-songwriters of the past 50 years” by Rich Warren of WFMT-Chicago. The list also included Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, Anais Mitchell, Joni Mitchell, and Danny Schmidt. In May of 2018, Bedford was named one of the six Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk winners at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas. He has toured extensively over the past 15 years in North America and western Europe. In January of 2023, he'll release his sixth studio album, Valley Of Stars, engineered and mixed by David Sinko (Yo-Yo Ma, Punch Brothers, Edgar Meyer) and featuring Ethan Jodziewicz (Aoife O’Donovan, Maya de Vitry, Milk Carton Kids) on bass, Chas Williams (Nanci Griffith) on second guitar, and Kari Floyd on harmony vocals.

“The Illinois songwriter is a masterful storyteller who can turn what seem like obscure historical references into engaging tales rife with vivid, stark imagery.”
–Erik Ernst, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Longer biography:

In the past fifteen years since the release of his first album, Bedford has played his music for audiences all over the United States hitting notable venues such as The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Folkstage in Chicago, and Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He's also played festivals like The Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas, The Fox Valley Folk Festival in Illinois, and the Fayetteville Roots Festival in Arkansas. His music has received extensive airplay on folk and roots radio in the U.S., as well as in Europe, taking him overseas on several occasions for concert dates on the continent and in the United Kingdom. Notable dates there include Izzy Young’s famed Folklore Centrum in Stockholm, Sweden, Toogenblik in Brussels, Belgium, and The Green Note in London, England. He's also played in Canada doing a Home Routes tour in Alberta and British Columbia. Bedford’s albums have charted highly on the Euro Americana charts and the Folk-DJ charts and his music has been played on National Public Radio’s Car Talk and featured in The Sounding Board, the official newsletter of the renowned C.F. Martin Guitar Company. In addition to independent terrestrial stations, Bedford’s music has received extensive airplay from syndicated programs such as “River City Folk” (syndicated by WFMT), “The Midnight Special” (syndicated by WFMT), BBC-Scotland, and the SIRIUS XM station “The Village”, all helping to gain Bedford a wider geographical audience.

In July of 2010, Bedford was named one of the “50 most significant Folk singer-songwriters of the past 50 years” by Rich Warren of WFMT-Chicago. The list also included Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, Anais Mitchell, Joni Mitchell, and Danny Schmidt.

In May of 2018, Bedford was named one of the six Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk winners at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas.

Bedford has recorded six studio albums: Lincoln's Man (2007), Land of the Shadows (2009), What We Lost (2012), The Pilot and the Flying Machine (2016), and The Hermit's Spyglass (2018). His sixth studio album, Valley of Stars, is due out in January of 2023. In 2020 he also released a curated selection of his first three albums on Cavalier Recordings in Europe titled, Portraits.