Kevin M. Hibshman's review of DARLING (CD) by Jon Bennett

According to his bio, Bennett is “a longtime member of San Francisco's underground music scene who mixes narratives with a finger picking style sometimes referred to as Texas flat picking. He is also a novelist and poet and his writing can be found in on line zines such as Red Fez, The Indiana Voice Journal, Medusa's Kitchen, Mad Swirl Poetry and many others. His music can be found on Pandora, iTunes, Spotify, Deezer and other music streaming sites. Darling is his sixth CD release and is available on Amazon.

        His phrasing and slightly raspy voice bring Bob Dylan to mind immediately. The lyrics reflect the concerns of gifted waifs longing for love but spending most of their nights drunk, roaming inner city bars. Each of the ten songs paints a vivid and complete picture of wayfaring wounded souls under three minutes time. The music sucks you in and ends leaving the listener gratified but wanting more. 

        I detect a little of The Flaming Lips on the whimsical “Awesome Possum” and the ghost of Nick Drake drifts by on a couple tunes. These possible influences in no way prevent this from being a highly original work. Bennett clearly has developed a signature style, showing it off to great effect. A sampling of the lyrics from “Black and Blue:” 

" now there's a razor blade/in a pool of after shave/maybe I will/on second thought, well maybe not/it's always been the time/that I need to kill"

                                                                                                                          

To be honest, I've fallen in love with Darling and recommend it strongly to any music fan who simply admires true artistry when it decides to rear its lovely, rarely seen head. This ranks with the best indie folk available.

Jon Bennett