Benjamin Mink (born January 22, 1951) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer best known as a longtime collaborator of Canadian singer

k.d. lang Kathryn Dawn Lang (born November 2, 1961), known by her stage name k.d. lang, is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter and occasional actress. Lang has won Juno Awards and Grammy Awards for her musical performances. Hits include the s ...

. He plays several string instruments, notably the guitar, violin, and the mandolin, and is a music producer. He lives in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

Life and career

Early work

Born to

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

Holocaust survivors Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally accep ...

, Mink was raised in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, Ontario. He got his start performing with the rock/country group Mary-Lou Horner, which became the house band at The Rockpile bar and nightclub and acted as a backup band for

Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...

. He has been a member of the groups

Stringband Stringband was a Canadian folk music ensemble, fronted by Bob Bossin and Marie-Lynn Hammond. Founded in 1971, Stringband recorded four studio albums between 1973 and 1978, and was an active touring ensemble through 1986. There have been periodic ...

, Murray McLauchlan's Silver Tractors, and FM.David Weigel.
The Show That Never Ends: The Rise and Fall of Prog Rock
'. W. W. Norton; 13 June 2017. . p. 161–.

k.d. lang

Mink is best known as a longtime collaborator of Canadian singer

, whom he met at

Expo '85 Expo '85, officially called the , was a world's fair held in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan (Tsukuba Science City, a planned city focused on technology north of Tokyo) between Sunday, March 17 and Monday, September 16, 1985. The theme of the fair was " ...

while doing a gig with CANO. Mink has performed on, along with co-writing and producing, several of her albums, which often combine voice with string arrangements.
The New Rolling Stone Album Guide
'. Simon and Schuster; 2004. . p. 474–. Mink subsequently performed as violinist, guitarist, and mandolinist with lang's band, the Reclines. A performance for the Grammy-nominated album ''

Ingénue The ''ingénue'' (, , ) is a stock character in literature, film and a role type in the theater, generally a girl or a young woman, who is endearingly innocent. ''Ingénue'' may also refer to a new young actress or one typecast in such role ...

'' was recorded as part of the ''

MTV Unplugged ''MTV Unplugged'' is an American television series on MTV showcasing musical artists usually playing acoustic instruments. The show aired regularly from 1989 to 1999 and less frequently from 2000 to 2009, when it was usually billed as ''MTV Un ...

'' series at the

Ed Sullivan Theater The Ed Sullivan Theater (originally Hammerstein's Theatre; later the Manhattan Theatre, Billy Rose's Music Hall, CBS Radio Playhouse No. 3, and CBS Studio 50) is a theater at 1697–1699 Broadway, between 53rd and 54th Streets, in the Theater ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, on December 16, 1992. Mink was interviewed about his songwriting collaboration with lang on the British television show ''South Bank Show'' in 1996."Tube and Twang"
The Advocate
'. Here Publishing; 6 February 1996.

ISSN An International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is an eight-digit serial number used to uniquely identify a serial publication, such as a magazine. The ISSN is especially helpful in distinguishing between serials with the same title. ISSNs ...

&nbs
0001-8996
p. 56–.

Rush

Mink was invited to play

electric violin An electric violin is a violin equipped with an electronic output of its sound. The term most properly refers to an instrument intentionally made to be electrified with built-in pickups, usually with a solid body. It can also refer to a violin fi ...

on the Rush song "Losing It" from their 1982 album ''

Signals In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

'', and contributed strings to the song "Faithless" from the 2007 album ''

Snakes & Arrows ''Snakes & Arrows'' is the 18th studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released on May 1, 2007, by Anthem Records. After their R30: 30th Anniversary Tour ended in October 2004 the band took a one-year break, during which they agreed to star ...

''. He also co-wrote, produced, and played guitar on '' My Favourite Headache'' (2000), a solo project of Rush lead singer and bassist

Geddy Lee Geddy Lee (born Gary Lee Weinrib; July 29, 1953) is a Canadian musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist for the Canadian rock group Rush. Lee joined the band in September 1968, at the re ...

.Martin Popoff.
Rush - Updated Edition: The Unofficial Illustrated History
'. Voyageur Press; June 2016. . p. 81–. On June 19, 2015, he performed "Losing It" with the trio at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, as part of their

R40 Live Tour The R40 Live Tour was the final tour by Canadian rock band Rush that commemorated the 40th anniversary of drummer Neil Peart joining the band in July 1974. The title hearkens back to Rush's 2004 R30: 30th Anniversary Tour that celebrated the 3 ...

Other collaborations

Mink has also produced and/or performed on recordings by the Barenaked Ladies,

Anne Murray Morna Anne Murray (born June 20, 1945) is a retired Canadian singer. Her albums, consisting primarily of pop, country, and adult contemporary music, have sold over 55 million copies worldwide during her over 40-year career. Murray was the fir ...

Dan Hill Daniel Grafton Hill IV (born 3 June 1954) is a Canadian pop singer and songwriter. He had two major international hits with his songs " Sometimes When We Touch" and "Can't We Try", a duet with Vonda Shepard, as well as a number of other charti ...

Mendelson Joe Mendelson Joe (born Birrel Josef Mendelson on July 30, 1944) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, painter and outspoken political activist who uses his art to express political themes. Career Born and raised in Maple, Ontario and educat ...

Prairie Oyster Prairie Oyster was a Canadian country music group from Toronto, Ontario. They were named Country Group or Duo of the year six times by both the Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) and the Juno Awards. The band also won the Bud Country Fan ...

Raffi Raffi Cavoukian, ( hy, Րաֆֆի, born July 8, 1948), known professionally by the mononym Raffi, is a Canadian singer-lyricist and author of Armenian descent born in Egypt, best known for his children's music. He developed his career as a " ...

Jane Siberry Jane Siberry ( ; ; born 12 October 1955) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, known for such hits as " Mimi on the Beach", "I Muse Aloud", " One More Colour" and "Calling All Angels". She performed the theme song to the television series ''Maniac M ...

, Ian and Sylvia Tyson,

Valdy Paul Valdemar Horsdal, (born 1 September 1945), commonly known as Valdy, is a Canadian folk and country musician whose solo career began in the early 1970s. He is known for "Rock and Roll Song", his first mainstream single. Valdy is the winner o ...

Bruce Cockburn Bruce Douglas Cockburn ( ; born May 27, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist. His song styles range from folk to jazz-influenced rock and his lyrics cover a broad range of topics including human rights, environmental issues, p ...

Murray McLauchlan Murray Edward McLauchlan, (born 30 June 1948) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, guitarist, pianist, and harmonica player. He is best known for his Canadian hits "Farmer's Song," "Whispering Rain," and "Down by the Henry Moore". Early life Mc ...

,Bernie Finkelstein.
True North: A Life Inside the Music Business
'. McClelland & Stewart; 2012. . p. 186–.

Willie P. Bennett William Patrick "Willie P." Bennett (26 October 1951 – 15 February 2008) was a Canadian folk-music singer-songwriter, harmonica player, and mandolinist. Bennett was part of the 1970s folk music scene in Canada, and wrote and recorded many origin ...

Susan Aglukark Susan Aglukark, (Inuktitut syllabics: ᓲᓴᓐ ᐊᒡᓘᒃᑲᖅ ''suusan agluukkaq''), (born 27 January 1967) is a Canadian singer whose blend of Inuit folk music traditions with country and pop songwriting has made her a major recording s ...

Methodman Clifford Smith, Jr. (born March 2, 1971), better known by his stage name Method Man, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is known as a member of the East Coast hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan. He is also half of t ...

Alison Krauss Alison Maria Krauss (born July 23, 1971) is an American bluegrass-country singer and musician. She entered the music industry at an early age, competing in local contests by the age of 8 and recording for the first time at 14. She signed with ...

, Feist,

Daniel Lanois Daniel Roland Lanois ( , ; born September 19, 1951) is a Canadian record producer, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He has produced albums by artists including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Robbie Robertson, Emmylou Harris, Willie ...

Sarah McLachlan Sarah Ann McLachlan OC OBC (born January 28, 1968) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. As of 2015, she had sold over 40 million albums worldwide. McLachlan's best-selling album to date is '' Surfacing'', for which she won two Grammy Awards (ou ...

, Roy Orbison, Elton John, and

Heart The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide to t ...

. He co-produced '' Red Velvet Car'' for Heart's

Ann Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...

and Nancy Wilson, released in the fall of 2010, and appeared onstage in the band's concert video ''Night at Sky Church''. Mink was back at the helm as producer of Heart's 2012 album ''

Fanatic FANatic is an American TV show created by Ed Connolly and produced by Executive Producers Deborah Norton and Ed Connolly of Norton Connolly Productions, that was shown on the MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an Am ...

'', which included the single "Walkin' Good", featuring

. Mink co-produced and performed on Feist's Grammy-nominated hit single "1-2-3-4", playing strings and guitars. He is a member of the Black Sea Station, a North American klezmer supergroup. Their debut recording, ''Transylvania Avenue'', is produced by Mink, and was released on Rounder Records in the Fall of 2010 as a digital download. He has also produced other klezmer musical acts in the past, such as Finjan,

The Klezmatics The Klezmatics are an American klezmer music group based in New York City, who have achieved fame singing in several languages, most notably mixing older Yiddish tunes with other types of more contemporary music of differing origins. They have ...

, and

Chava Alberstein Chava Alberstein ( he, חוה אלברשטיין, born 8 December 1946 in Poland) is an Israeli musician, lyricist, composer, and musical arranger. Biography Born Ewa Alberstein in Szczecin, Poland, her name was Hebraized to Chava when she ...

Soundtracks

Mink scored the 2007 biopic ''Confessions of an Innocent Man'' about British-Canadian engineer William Sampson, which garnered him a Gemini Award. He wrote the soundtrack to the film ''

Fifty Dead Men Walking ''Fifty Dead Men Walking'' is a 2008 English-language crime thriller film written and directed by Kari Skogland. It is a loose adaptation of Martin McGartland's 1997 autobiography of the same name. It premiered in September 2008, and stars Jim St ...

'', which has since received numerous awards and nominations, including a 2010 Genie Award nomination for Best Achievement in Music—Original Score, and a 2009 Leo Award for Best Musical Score for a Feature-Length Drama. The television soundtracks for ''Terminal City'' and '' Alice'' both also garnered

Leo Awards The Leo Awards are the awards program for the British Columbia film and television industry. Held each May or June in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the Leo Awards were founded by the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Foundation of British C ...

. In 2011, the TV series ''

Glee Glee means delight, a form of happiness. Glee may also refer to: * Glee (music), a type of English choral music * ''Glee'' (TV series), an American musical comedy-drama TV series, and related media created by Ryan Murphy * ''Glee'' (Bran Van 30 ...

'' used the 1992 song " Constant Craving", written by Mink and k.d. lang,Babette Babich.
The Hallelujah Effect: Philosophical Reflections on Music, Performance Practice, and Technology
'. Routledge; 16 March 2016. . p. 180–. in the seventh episode of the third season, for its closing number (performed by

Chris Colfer Christopher Paul Colfer (born May 27, 1990) is an American actor, singer, and author. He gained international recognition for his portrayal of Kurt Hummel on the television musical '' Glee'' (2009–2015). Colfer's portrayal of Kurt received cr ...

Idina Menzel Idina Kim Menzel ( ; ; born May 30, 1971) is an American actress and singer. Particularly known for her work in musicals on the Broadway stage and having achieved mainstream success across stage, film and music, Menzel has garnered the honori ...

and

Naya Rivera Naya Marie Rivera (; January 12, 1987July 8, 2020) was an American actress, singer, and model. Recognized for her work on the popular musical comedy-drama series '' Glee'', she received various awards, including a Screen Actors Guild Award and ...

Other work

Mink has lectured on such topics as "The Music Business vs. the Creative Process" at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...

Western Washington University Western Washington University (WWU or Western) is a public university in Bellingham, Washington. The northernmost university in the contiguous United States, WWU was founded in 1893 as the state-funded New Whatcom Normal School, succeeding a pri ...

, and

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located ...

. He has also worked with students as an associate of UBC's Department of Mechanical Engineering (robotics) and is an associate member of the Institute for Computing, Information & Cognitive Systems. In 2006, he delivered the introductory speech to k.d. lang's

Governor General's Performing Arts Award A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

induction at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. He has also contributed to the Library and Archives Canada."Ben Mink fonds"
- ''Library and Archives Canada'' Mink is one of few people to ever share a songwriting credit with

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...

and

Keith Richards Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943), often referred to during the 1960s and 1970s as "Keith Richard", is an English musician and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the co-founder, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-princi ...

. In 1997, Mink and k.d. lang were co-credited as songwriters on

the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

single "

Anybody Seen My Baby? "Anybody Seen My Baby?" is a song by English rock band the Rolling Stones, released as the first single from their 21st British and 23rd American studio album, '' Bridges to Babylon'' (1997). It was written by band vocalist Mick Jagger and guitar ...

" because Jagger-Richards felt the chorus was very similar to "Constant Craving". Mink has one solo recording—the hard-to-find 1980 release ''Foreign Exchange'', on

Passport Records Passport Records was a U.S.-based independent record label that existed between 1973 and 1988. It was notable for popularizing such artists as Larry Fast, FM, Richard Barone, and Wendy O. Williams. It was distributed by Jem Records in the United ...

."Ben Mink"
- ''Canadian Encyclopedia.com''

Selected awards

* Grammy Awards: In 1990, Mink was co-nominated with k.d. lang for a Best Country Song Grammy for " Luck in My Eyes". Subsequently, as a producer and writer, he has been nominated for a total of nine Grammies, winning twice for his work with lang. *

Juno Awards The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

: He has received seven Juno nominations, winning three times between 1993 and 1994. *

Genie Jinn ( ar, , ') – also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies (with the broader meaning of spirit or demon, depending on sources) – are invisible creatures in early pre-Islamic Arabian religious systems and later in Islamic myt ...

/ Gemini Awards: Genie Award – Best Original Score for ''50 Dead Men Walking''; Gemini Award – Best British Columbia Film for ''Confessions of an Innocent Man''. *

: Best Musical Score 2006, 2009, 2010.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mink, Ben 1951 births Canadian songwriters Canadian rock violinists Canadian record producers Canadian mandolinists Musicians from Toronto Canadian emigrants to the United States Canadian people of Polish-Jewish descent Musicians from Cleveland Living people Juno Award for Songwriter of the Year winners Songwriters from Ohio 20th-century Canadian guitarists 21st-century Canadian guitarists Electric violinists Jack Richardson Producer of the Year Award winners 20th-century Canadian violinists and fiddlers 21st-century Canadian violinists and fiddlers 20th-century Canadian male musicians 21st-century Canadian male musicians Jewish Canadian musicians Canadian male violinists and fiddlers Canadian male guitarists Members of the Order of Canada Musicians from Vancouver