Brendan Benson

Although Brendan Benson may have only become well known to some music fans for being Jack White's songwriting foil in The Raconteurs, his critically acclaimed solo career stretches back to the mid-1990s. Seeing him live is a great way to understand just how gifted a guitar pop songwriter and singer Benson is.
Brendan Benson typically tours with an excellent three-piece band to back him up on guitar and vocals. While the clever, often lush arrangements of his Beatle-like melodies might suggest an almost haughty approach to his live show, in fact Benson on stage is almost disarmingly humble with his shaggy hair, tee shirts, and skinny jeans. It's as if a local record store clerk had grabbed a guitar and taken to the mic.
Those notions of simplicity vanish when the band swings into Benson's extensive catalogue. His sometimes delicate songs—like “Cold Hands, Warm Heart”, “Metairie”, or “Alternative To Love—are given a louder, perhaps rougher treatment than one might expect from how they sound on album, but it works incredibly well. And while Brendan Benson isn't a household name like Jack White just yet, don't be surprised if his dedicated fans aren't singing along to nearly every song at the show, too. In addition to his solo material, Benson does a smattering of some of his own stuff from the Raconteurs. Not only that, but if you're lucky enough to see Brendan Benson play in Tennessee, don't be surprised if his more famous sometimes-bandmate (yes, Jack White) joins him onstage for a few songs too.