Richard Dyer-Bennet (6 October 1913 in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

, England – 14 December 1991 in

Monterey Monterey ( ; ) is a city situated on the southern edge of Monterey Bay, on the Central Coast of California. Located in Monterey County, the city occupies a land area of and recorded a population of 30,218 in the 2020 census. The city was fou ...

, Massachusetts) was an English-born American

folk singer Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

(or his own preferred term, "

minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. The term originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist enter ...

"), recording artist, and voice teacher.

Early life

He was born on 6 October 1913 in

, England, as the eldest son of Miriam Wolcott Clapp and Richard Stewart Dyer-Bennet (1886–1983), a Major in the Leicester Regiment who was wounded twice while fighting in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. His paternal grandfather was Frederick Stewart Hotham Dyer-Bennet (a grandson of Sir Thomas Swinnerton Dyer, 9th Baronet).Mosley, Charles, editor. ''Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes.''

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...

Burke's Peerage Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogical publisher, considered an authority on the order of precedence of noble families and information on the lesser nobility of the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1826, when the Anglo-Irish genea ...

(Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003, volume 1, pp. 1252-1254. Dyer-Bennet grew up in Germany, Canada and California. He studied voice with Gertrude Wheeler Beckman and Sven Scholander. The meeting with Scholander had a profound effect on Dyer-Bennet, who later recalled: "He looked straight at me and spun tale after tale as though singing out of his own life. He sang of soldiers, sailors, young lovers; he sang dialogues between mother and daughter, altercations between birds and animals, descriptions of mountain and countryside. A pageant of the ages seemed to pass before my eyes, and it was all evoked by the husky voice of this old man and by his simple but exactly appropriate accompaniments on the lute."

Career

His first album released included the song, The Lonesome Valley, used for many years to sign off the Midnight Special on WFMT each Saturday night. A favorite interview of Studs Terkel. He had a stroke in 1972 paralyzing his left side and he stopped giving concerts.

Legacy

During his peak performance years, he gave 50 concerts a year. He recorded extensively for many labels, and eventually founded his own, Dyer-Bennet Records, recording in his own living room. The albums he recorded on his own label have been re-released on CD by

Smithsonian Folkways Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was f ...

. The CD ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 1'' includes a biographical essay written by Dyer-Bennet's daughter, Bonnie, which highlights his progressive politics and his battle with a debilitating stroke in later life (he taught himself to play harp one-handed so that he could continue to perform and teach). A biography – ''Richard Dyer-Bennet: The Last Minstrel'' – by Paul O Jenkins was published in December 2009 by the University Press of Mississippi. The book chronicles Dyer-Bennet's eventful life and includes a foreword by his daughter.

Personal life

In 1936, Dyer-Bennet married Elizabeth Hoar Pepper. They divorced in 1941. He married Melvene Ipcar in 1942, they had two daughters Brooke and Bonnie. He was

heir presumptive An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of a person with a better claim to the position in question. This is in contrast to an heir app ...

of the Dyer baronets from 1983 until his death. He died of cancer on 14 December 1991 at his home in Monterey, Massachusetts.

Discography

;Dyer-Bennet Records releases * 1949: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet: Twentieth Century Minstrel (Decca DLP 5046)'' * 1952: ''Folk Songs (Remington REP-1)'' * 1955: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 1'' * 1956: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 2'' * 1956: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 3'' * 1957: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 4'' * 1958: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 5: Requests'' * 1958: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 6: Songs With Young People in Mind'' * 1958: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 7: Beethoven Scottish and Irish Songs'' * 1959: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 8: Gems of Minstrelsy'' * 1960: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 9'' * 1962: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 10'' * 1962: ''A Richard Dyer-Bennet Concert'' (Stinson Records) * 1962: ''

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

1601 This Epoch (reference date)#Computing, epoch is the beginning of the 400-year Gregorian leap-year cycle within which digital files first existed; the last year of any such cycle is the only leap year whose year number is divisible by 100. Jan ...

'' * 1962: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 11:

Stephen Foster Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826January 13, 1864), known as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour music, parlour and Folk music, folk music during the Romantic music, Romantic period. He wr ...

Songs'' * 1964: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 12: Songs of Ships, Seafaring Men, Watery Graves...and One Edible Rat'' * 1964: ''Richard Dyer-Bennet 13: Stories and Songs for Children and Their Parents'' ;Folkways Records releases * 1967: ''The Asch Recordings, 1939 to 1945 – Vol. 2'' (

Folkways Records Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways. History The Folkways Records & Service ...

) * All the Dyer-Bennet Records releases have been re-released by

Bibliography

*1970: ''The Richard Dyer-Bennet Folk Song Book.'' New York: Simon and Schuster.

Videography

*1980:

Notes

References

External links

"Richard Dyer-Bennet Resource Page"Dyer Bennet
at

"Richard Dyer-Bennet: The Last Minstrel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dyer-Bennet, Richard 1913 births 1991 deaths American folk singers 20th-century American singers Musicians from Leicester People from Berkshire County, Massachusetts English emigrants to the United States