Garrin Benfield

I wanted to give you a little rundown on what I've been up to this year, along with a bunch of links (lots of 'em!) to various bands, projects and organizations I've been working with. Please check out these links, as most of these artists, venues, festivals and magazines could use your support!

In 2012, I played 120 gigs! Highlights of my own shows included a co-headlining show with David Gans at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, three gigs at the brand spanking new Sweetwater Music Hallin Mill Valley, several showcases at SxSW in Austin, and a Fall East Coast tour of Vermont, Upstate New York, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.

Gigs at the bucolic American River Festival, the funky Fairfax Festival, homegrown West Fest and labor of love SF Free Folk Fest stand out, as does playing "Very Jerry II" with an all star band at Ashkenaz!

This past year I also continued working with several other musical projects, including Bill Cutler,  Heather Combs, Terese Taylor, Chris Zanardi's High Beamz, and the Friends of the Devil. With these bands, I played some very memorable gigs, including the once in a lifetime Golden Gate Bridge 75th Anniversary concert, the quintessential Haight Street Fair, and storied SF venue The Bottom of the Hill.

in 2012, my video of the Garcia/Hunter song "Standing on the Moon"made it into the top ten in the Grateful Dead's "Cover Project".

The video was featured on the Dead's homepage and has garnered almost 9,000 views so far. Thank you Joshua Smith and Daniel Ford for videography.

in 2012, I composed music for two films, the hilarious match.bom, directed by Michelle Hirsch, and The Gift of Compassion , a film about the Maitri Hospice in San Francisco by Bill Weber.

This past year I also traveled to Jamaica and Haiti with a group of mostly Bay Area-based musicians to record music with singers, songwriters and instrumentalists from both countries. The resulting full length recording and a documentary on the trip will be available soon. To Learn more about JHAM (Jamaican Haitian American Musicians), check out the facebook page or website.

Acoustic Guitar Magazine included me in a feature story on "Real World Rigs" of performing guiatrists. Also included in the article were friends Mokai, James Nash, Nina Gerber and Jackie Greene. To accompany the article, we also recorded a video of me explaining my pedal board and looping technique.

Electronic Musician Magazine used photos of me playing a house concert in Berkeley, CA in an article about house concerts!

Photos by Dave Vann.

Also this year, I had two pieces of writing published, a review onjambase of Furthur at the Bill Graham Civic in San Francisco, and an article in Surrender to the Flow about brianrobert, the social networking group of LGBTQ Phish Phans.

A live version of "Colors in You" was included on "Live from Berkeley Volume 2", a collection of recordings from KPFA studios in Berkeley. The proceeds from this CD will benefit KPFA.

My latest full length CD, "The Wave Organ Song", continued to receive positive reviews.

Thank you so much for your support of independent music. The most important thing you can do for someone like me and my indie friends is spread the word to your friends and family about what we do. Like ourfacebook page, buy our CDs, tell people to check us out on spotify, and come to our shows!