Biography
Guitarist Bennie Smith spent five decades anchoring the blues scene in St. Louis. Besides releasing his own Fedora album Shook Up, the lifelong local appears on Big Bad Smitty’s Mean Disposition, Jimmy “Soul” Clark’s “Shook Up Over You,” and Ike Turner’s “Boxtop,” the latter marking the first recording by Tina Turner under her early billing of Little Ann.
Born into a household of fourteen children, Smith began on a ukulele handed down by a cousin before receiving an old acoustic guitar from one of his brothers. He absorbed playing methods from local players, starting with Butch McCray, then connected with Doc Perry and George Perry before crossing paths with Ace Wallace, who supplied hands-on guitar guidance. Smith soon joined the Perry brothers onstage and later secured a chair in the Roosevelt Marks Band. By the second half of the 1950s he had become a member of Tommy Brown & the Teardrops, appearing with them at Atlanta’s Club Peacock and on dates across Florida and Georgia. During the same decade he also led a group that included Chuck Bernard and Chuck Berry.
His guitar surfaces on numerous sides issued by Teek Records and Tune Town. Over the years he has shared stages with Aretha Franklin, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Little Milton, Bill Doggett, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, Charles Brown, Rufus Thomas, Bobby “Blue” Bland, and Amos Milburn, among many others. His debut full-length, The Urban Soul of Bennie Smith, arrived in 1993. Beginning that same year, Smith and his band Urban Blues Express performed for four straight seasons at the Blues Estafette festival in Holland. Alongside Smith on vocals and guitar, the lineup features keyboardist Rory Johnson, vocalist and bassist Sharon Foehner, and vocalist and drummer Marty Spikener.
Born into a household of fourteen children, Smith began on a ukulele handed down by a cousin before receiving an old acoustic guitar from one of his brothers. He absorbed playing methods from local players, starting with Butch McCray, then connected with Doc Perry and George Perry before crossing paths with Ace Wallace, who supplied hands-on guitar guidance. Smith soon joined the Perry brothers onstage and later secured a chair in the Roosevelt Marks Band. By the second half of the 1950s he had become a member of Tommy Brown & the Teardrops, appearing with them at Atlanta’s Club Peacock and on dates across Florida and Georgia. During the same decade he also led a group that included Chuck Bernard and Chuck Berry.
His guitar surfaces on numerous sides issued by Teek Records and Tune Town. Over the years he has shared stages with Aretha Franklin, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Little Milton, Bill Doggett, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, Charles Brown, Rufus Thomas, Bobby “Blue” Bland, and Amos Milburn, among many others. His debut full-length, The Urban Soul of Bennie Smith, arrived in 1993. Beginning that same year, Smith and his band Urban Blues Express performed for four straight seasons at the Blues Estafette festival in Holland. Alongside Smith on vocals and guitar, the lineup features keyboardist Rory Johnson, vocalist and bassist Sharon Foehner, and vocalist and drummer Marty Spikener.
Albums