- Ben Eldridge
Ben Eldridge, (born
August 15 ,1938 ) is a five-string banjo player and a founding member of the seminal bluegrass group TheSeldom Scene . He also works as a mathematician.Biography
Ben Eldridge was born in
Richmond, Virginia . He began playing theguitar at age ten and later in 1954 thebanjo . In 1957, he began his studies at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. Four years later he moved toAdelphi, Maryland . Eldridge became acquainted withBill Keith andBill Emerson who were to become two major banjo picking influences in his life.In June 1970, Eldridge joined "Cliff Waldron and his New Shades of Grass". Eldridge was among five musicians who started playing in the fall of 1971 with mandolinist
John Duffey , Dobro playerMike Auldridge , bassistTom Gray and guitar and lead singer John Starling. They would ultimately be known as The Seldom Scene. Duffey had quit playing professionally a short while earlier, to resume his career as a luthier and stay at home, so the conditions under which the band played were that they would not make a run for commercial success, and everybody kept their day jobs. By early 1972 they had a weekly gig at Bethesda, Maryland's Red Fox Inn that stretched for six years. Later they moved the weekly performance to Thursday's at the Birchmere inAlexandria, Virginia , just across the Potomac River. Starling finished his medical residency and moved to Alabama to practice medicine, but The Seldom Scene continued with a series of other accomplished guitar players. Duffey died unexpectedly in 1996, contributing to musical turmoil in the band. Gray eventually left to continue his career in cartography, Auldridge left the band, and by the first decade in the 21st century Ben Eldridge was the only original member left. (Current as of May 2007.)Eldridge plays on all Seldom Scene albums, and his discography includes 55 albums. Eldridge contributed to solo albums by Mike Auldridge and Phil Rosenthal (who had succeeded John Starling), and he and other members of The Seldom Scene famously backed
Linda Ronstadt in a few numbers on her early, more country-flavored albums.Ben's son, Chris, currently plays with the Infamous Stringdusters as well as Chris Thile's How To Grow A Band, as well as occasionally with the Seldom Scene.
References
*"Tony Trischka, Pete Wernick, Masters of the 5-string Banjo, Oak Publications, (1988)"
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