Ben Beckendorf will be my songwriter guest. 

If you are outside the Fredericksburg Texas area:  Join us online at www.TABCRADIO.com from 1:00 - 2:00pm for "The Outsider Songwriter Radio Hour".

Then Join us at The Auslander on Main Street in Fredericksburg from 4:00 - 7:00pm for  "The Outsider Songwriter Spotlight Series". www.theAuslander.com

Photo By: Kim Rich Barrow

Bio From his web site: www.benbeckendorf.com

Ben B. Beckendorf (aka The Reverend Bennie B. - and yes, he really is a reverend) was born in Austin, Texas in 1955 - Texas was already in the groove of the Blues with the likes of T-Bone Walker, Lightnin' Hopkins, Freddie King, and many more.. little did they know another bluesman had been born. Ben's family moved to Los Angeles, California for a while, then to Houston, Texas, and eventually located to central Texas on a ranch just North of Fredericksburg. "The closest neighbors we had were miles away, so my guitar became my best friend. I would spend hours a day listening to records and trying to figure out patterns on the guitar." Ever since he knew what a guitar was, Ben wanted one, and in 1964 he got his first one, it was a Gene Autry guitar that he found in his Grandmother's attic. In 1965, at the ripe ol' age of ten, Ben bought his first electric guitar, a used 1949 Kay electric guitar(which he still has). He learned all kinds of music - the Blues, Jazz, Rock, Folk, Country & Pop and he listened to his music heroes with a yearning ear. Unlike a lot of his friends, Ben liked to listen to Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Otis Rush, Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, and many other Blues icons. " I was always fascinated by the way the old blues cats put their heart and soul into their music." 
  In 1968 Ben wrote his first song, Beautiful Day(which he still plays for live audiences) and has since written and recorded over 800 songs in many different styles and textures. Ben paints a very vivid picture with his lyrics and his guitar sometimes seems to speak in words instead of notes. He writes songs for everyday people about everyday things. His melodic ballads can touch and soothe even the most stringent of hearts and his Rock & Blues tunes produce irresistable rhythms with strong backbone beats.
  Ben started his first band in 1967 and has played and toured with bands, worked in studios, written, recorded, produced, and engineered music ever since. Ben has become a staple of the Texas Hill Country not only with his music, but with his artwork as well. Ben is the son of the most influential artist in Texas, the late Charles Beckendorf, and some of his talent must have rubbed off. "I have been doing artwork about as long as I have been playing music." Ben's artwork can be seen at benbeckendorfgallery.com and you can hear Ben at venues all over the Texas Hill Country and  Fredericksburg, Texas- the place Bennie B. has called home for over fifty years.