Richard Dyer-Bennet (6 October 1913 in Leicester, England – 14 December 1991 in

Monterey Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bot ...

, Massachusetts) was an English-born American

folk singer Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

(or his own preferred term, "

minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer ...

"), recording artist, and voice teacher.

Biography

He was born on 6 October 1913 in Leicester, England, to Richard Stewart Dyer-Bennet (1886–1983) and Miriam Wolcott Clapp. Dyer-Bennet studied voice with Gertrude Wheeler Beckman and

Sven Scholander Sven Scholander (1860–1936) was a Swedish singer, musician, composer and sculptor. Sven Scholander. ''sv.wikipedia.org''. Retrieved: August 21, 2012. His musical innovations led to a revival in Swedish lute playing while his solo performances o ...

. His first album released included the song, The Lonesome Valley, used for many years to sign off the Midnight Special on WFMT each Saturday night. A favorite interview of Studs Terkel. He had a stroke in 1972 paralyzing his left side and he stopped giving concerts. He was heir presumptive of the

Dyer baronets There have been two baronetcies created for persons with the surname Dyer, both in the Baronetage of England. One creation is extant as of 2015. The Dyer Baronetcy, of Staughton in the County of Huntingdon, was created in the Baronetage of Englan ...

from 1983 until his death. He died on 14 December 1991 at his home in

Monterey, Massachusetts Monterey is a small town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,095 at the 2020 census. History Prior to settlement by European-Ameri ...

Legacy

During his peak performance years, he gave 50 concerts a year. He recorded extensively for many labels, and eventually founded his own, Dyer-Bennet Records, and recorded in his own living room. The albums he recorded on his own label have been re-released on CD by

Smithsonian Folkways Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was fo ...

. The CD ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 1'' includes a biographical essay written by Dyer-Bennet's daughter, Bonnie, which highlights his progressive politics and his battle with a debilitating stroke in later life (he taught himself to play harp one-handed so that he could continue to perform and teach). A biography – ''Richard Dyer-Bennet: The Last Minstrel'' – by Paul O Jenkins was published in December 2009 by the University Press of Mississippi. The book chronicles Dyer-Bennet's eventful life and includes a foreword by his daughter.

Discography

;Dyer-Bennet Records releases * 1949: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet: Twentieth Century Minstrel (Decca DLP 5046)'' * 1952: ''Folk Songs (Remington REP-1)" * 1955: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 1'' * 1956: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 2'' * 1956: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 3'' * 1957: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 4'' * 1958: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 5: Requests'' * 1958: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 6: Songs With Young People in Mind'' * 1958: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 7: Beethoven Scottish and Irish Songs'' * 1959: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 8: Gems of Minstrelsy'' * 1960: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 9'' * 1962: '' Mark Twain's

1601 This Epoch (reference date)#Computing, epoch is the beginning of the 400-year Gregorian leap-year cycle within which digital files first existed; the last year of any such cycle is the only leap year whose year number is divisible by 100. Jan ...

'' * 1962: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 10'' * 1962: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 11:

Stephen Foster Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826January 13, 1864), known also as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour and minstrel music during the Romantic period. He wrote more than 200 songs, inc ...

Songs'' * 1964: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 12: Songs of Ships, Seafaring Men, Watery Graves...and One Edible Rat'' * 1964: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 13: Stories and Songs for Children and Their Parents'' ;Folkways Records releases * 1967: ''The Asch Recordings, 1939 to 1945 – Vol. 2'' ( Folkways Records) * All the Dyer-Bennet Records releases have been re-released by

Bibliography

*1970: ''The Richard Dyer-Bennet Folk Song Book.'' New York: Simon and Schuster.

Videography

*1980:

References

External links

"Richard Dyer-Bennet Resource Page"Dyer Bennet
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dyer-Bennet, Richard 1913 births 1991 deaths American folk singers 20th-century American singers Musicians from Leicestershire People from Leicester People from Berkshire County, Massachusetts British emigrants to the United States