rock of ages

Rock of ages played by Duster Bennett has been one of the tunes that really got me into the sound of acoustic steel guitar. Duster had an intensity on his vocals and instruments that reminded me of Blind Willie Johnson. Such a pity he left us that early. Here's my shot at that tune, sprinkled with improvised dressing

Category:

Music

Tags:

• national
• guitar
• experimental
• lapsteel
• improvisation
• dusterbennett
• slideguitar

[karldeeter]

lovely playing! and good video production too! what do you use to get the two angles and on the one sound track?

brill!

[blackmud23]

thanks you're very kind. this was shot in st johns college's studio in cork, two good camera with good lenses. multiangle editing with final cut pro, pretty cool feature and lots of fun.

gimme a shout if you ever this side of ireland and are up for jamming :)

[shredmunga]

lovely playing, enjoyed the feeling you put into the song

[philrawlinson1948]

Great sound. Duster was my next door neighbour for two years in Dorking area. I used to listen to him practising and he was amazing. For years I had the albums Bright Lights/Big City and 12 DB's, but lost them along the way. Found many tracks via online sources recently. Martin Celmins has recently released a bio book. Also great. Duster has been completely undervalued by British music scene.

[Tralfamadorean]

Gin mill .... hmmmm there's a thing ... some memories there. First saw Duster at a club called Pantiles in bagshot (i think) my English teacher had to lend me a tie to get in. It was a Peter Greeg gig, and Duster just set up and played in the break. No one seemed to have heard of him then. I recall that he was so eager to play that he didn't allow applause ... just went straight in to the next number. Very very good.

[wjwmorrow]

Perranwell: I saw him at the same concert at the RAH (pretty sure it was '69) with Fleetwood Mac (did Pentangle perform too or was that another gig?). I also saw him play at the Gin Mill, Godalming. He was an excellent performer and his all too early death was a tragic loss.

[greenhenton1]

Well your better than me

[NKPman]

I agree with everything you say. I saw him about the same time as you and also have his first album. For a while he played with John Mayall, just playing baare chord rythym guitar; a bit of a waste of his talent. For 37 years or so I wasn't aware that Peter Green had also recorded Jumping at Shadows (my F Mac record collection was a bit deficient until these days of computer downloads and Youtube came along) and I always associate the song with Duster.

[perranwell]

Duster Bennet was the first person I ever saw on stage. It was back in 1968/9 at The Royal Albert Hall in London supporting Fleetwood Mac. I went to see Mac beacause they had Albatros in the charts at the time. I had no idea they were a blues band!! Next day I went out an bought Duster's 1st Album. A great loss and a pity there seems to be no video of him.