Category: Guitar

Posted on

She Runs Through My Mind Like an Apparition

Listen to my recent musical composition entitled, ” She Runs Through My Mind Like an Apparition” for guitar, concertina, and mandolin. My boxwood engraving of a vine covered oak is evocative of the haunted James River floodplain in Virginia. The musical composition is reminiscent of stories sung in ballads that migrated from Europe and Africa to the southern regions of North America. The diverse musical instruments express the fleeting polyphonic thoughts that run through my mind, forever changing in time. I fondly acknowledge my son, Adam Bender for assisting me with graphic layout and production. Sandy Bender

Posted on

Two dancing pigs

“Two Dancing Pigs” Pastel Drawing Detail by Sanford Ross Bender

“Two Dancing Pigs” composed, performed, and recorded on one track with acoustic guitar and harmonica. Previously included on “Terrain” CD 2015 by Sanford (Sandy) Ross Bender

“Two Dancing Pigs” was improvised by playing harmonica and guitar simultaneously. Any discomfort in physically managing two instruments was alleviated through closed-eye visualization of two dancing pigs squealing with delight in each other’s company. The artwork is a detail of the pastel drawing used in my previous post, “The Listening Drum.” Looking closer allows one to see two dark pig-like shapes appear (among other creatures such as a spider, a bat, or a raven’s tail). Perhaps, rainbow colored waves are perceived as dancing while the pig duo floats and soars overhead in sea spray and thermal undulations. A colorful drawing appearing to depict a single slice in time awakens and sequentially shape-shifts to melodic rhythms of musical joy.

You can find “Two Dancing Pigs” and other pieces on Sandy Bender’s album Terrain.

Posted on

Long snowy walk home under a crescent moon

“Snowy forest” drawn with pen and ink on paper by Sandy Bender in 1981.
“Winter Spruce in snow beyond” drawn with pen and ink by Sandy Bender on January 23, 1995
“Snowy hills” drawn with pen and ink by Sandy Bender in April, 1996.
“Long snowy walk home under a crescent moon” composed. performed and recorded with acoustic guitar (with and without metal tube slide on separate tracks) by Sanford R. Bender on September 12, 2021.