For Ben Garnett, the acoustic guitar is naturally cinematic. “It has this ability to build a world for other instruments to inhabit,” Garnett muses. His forthcoming album, Kite’s Keep (2025), features artfully constructed compositions brought to life by acoustic music luminaries like Darol Anger, Brittany Haas (fiddle), Ethan Jodziewicz, Paul Kowert (bass), and Chris Eldridge (guitar). “My dream was to shine a light on these pervasive, yet often overlooked, abilities of the instrument; to demonstrate that a ‘guitar record’ can actually showcase the guitar as this world-building, ensemble instrument, rather than merely a lead instrument.” Shifting its aperture from folk to bluegrass, pop to jazz, classical to avant-garde, Kite’s Keep rarely settles into any one particular genre; rather, it relishes the in-between spaces, revealing its innovations not through spectacle, but through the quiet power of storytelling in motion.
Every piece on Kite’s Keep is a mini-movie with its own narrative arc, cinematic close-ups, and golden hour lighting with Garnett as both auteur director and best supporting actor. Not surprising for someone who frequents the Belcourt, Nashville’s arthouse cinema, to study how stand-out indie movies create tension and emotional resonance. The album takes its cue from Andrés Segovia, who famously said, “the guitar is an orchestra.” Garnett likes to disassemble his compositions, handing out the parts to his co-conspirators to give guitaristic ideas a new timbral life. Says Garnett, “there are moments on this record where the fiddle and bass take over material born from the fretboard, carrying it up or down to places where the guitar can only point.” This can be heard on the opening track “Look Again,” with its prismatic melodies expanding outward or “Tell Me About You,” a conversation piece with interlocking parts, fitting together like puzzle pieces. Kite’s Keep is full of singable melodies and guitar parts that sparkle with a sense of verve and adventure.
From early on, music was an immersive experience for Garnett. He played tuba in his grade school band and loved the wild atmosphere when they warmed up in the hallway. He learned Green Day songs after school, but his guiding light was his cousin Andy Timmons, a rock guitar god who lived an hour away on Texas Highway 121. Andy played in Danger Danger and with Olivia Newton-John and imparted the wisdom that songs are more important than virtuosity. Young Garnett spent hours in Andy’s studio, surrounded by vintage tube amps and over 100 guitars, pouring over Beatles songs and basking in those shimmering Ibanez guitar tones. In his 20s, Garnett found a new kind of guitar hero studying with Julian Lage at the Savannah Acoustic Seminar before moving to Nashville and striking up a deep friendship with Chris Eldridge (Punch Brothers), who has since become his longtime mentor and collaborator.
Garnett’s self-assured debut album, Imitation Fields (2023), produced by Eldridge, is a refreshingly beautiful collision of new acoustic and electronic music. Hypnotic pulses meet rootsy melodies featuring an all-star cast of many of the musicians on Kite’s Keep, as well as Billy Contreras (fiddle), Dominick Leslie (mandolin), former Circus No. 9 bandmate Matthew Davis (banjo), and others. He has made duo records with Matt Glassmeyer (Speed of Wood Vol. 1, 2024), Ethan Sherman (Stereoscope, 2019), and Celia Hill (Spherically, 2016). Garnett tours with contemporary bluegrass bands Missy Raines & Allegheny and Circus No. 9. He’s performed on the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium, Big Ears Festival, Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, Rochester Jazz Festival, Philadelphia Folk Fest, and toured extensively in the US, Canada, France, Sweden, Australia, and New Zealand. As an educator, he’s taught at the Berklee College of Music, Targhee Music Camp, Idaho Bluegrass & Banjo Camp, Ashokan Bluegrass Camp, and Folk Alliance International.
