Richard Bennett

About Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is an American guitarist and record producer. As a touring sideman, he performed with Neil Diamond for seventeen years and Mark Knopfler since 1994. As a session musician, he has worked with Billy Joel, Barbra Streisand, Rodney Crowell, and Vince Gill. He has produced albums for Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Marty Stuart, and Kim Richey.

Career Highlights

Richard Bennett began his career in the 1960s as a studio musician. He played on a few tracks on Neil Diamond's 1971 album Stones; Moods was his first full album with him. He played on every Diamond album until 1987 and toured with him for 17 years. He also co-wrote with Diamond, including the up-tempo "Forever in Blue Jeans" from the 1978 album You Don't Bring Me Flowers, which reached the Top 20.

In 1975's "Let Your Love Flow" by The Bellamy Brothers, Bennett plays lead guitar. It is also featured in a UK Barclay's Bank commercial. Larry Williams, a member of Neil Diamond's road crew, wrote the song.

Formed in the late 1970s as Rodney Crowell's road band, The Notorious Cherry Bombs' original members include guitarists Vince Gill and Richard Bennett, keyboardist Tony Brown, steel guitarist Hank DeVito, drummer Larrie Londin, and bassist Emory Gordy, Jr. With a modified lineup the musicians went to the studio in early 2004 to record The Notorious Cherry Bombs, their first album as a band.

Mark Knopfler writes from the liner notes of Bennett's solo album, Themes From A Rainy Decade, "For almost ten years now, I've felt very lucky having Richard Bennett as a pal and a band member. His quiet, self-effacing manner hides an encyclopedic knowledge of all kinds of roots and rock music, from Hillbilly to Hawaiian, played effortlessly on a variety of instruments that appear out of a flight case as big as an Airstream trailer... May his cracking guitar playing find a place in your life like mine."

Bennett's electric guitar intro to Emmylou Harris' "Heaven Only Knows" (from her Bennett-produced Bluebird album) was the first sound heard on the 2004 season-opening episode of The Sopranos.

BENADO Partnership

BENADO and Richard Bennett have collaborated for several years, and together, they worked on Richard's signature model, RB Deluxe Black, which was an offspring of an earlier BENADO unit, "The Deluxe Black."