Brent Bennett's just-released solo CD, Under My Own Power, provides the listener with a portrait of Brent Bennett, creative force, in all his multidimensionality. All of Brent Bennett is here, and this writer can definitely say that his listening of Under My Own Power made him aware of aspects of Bennett's musical talent he had not been aware of previously--despite seeing Bennett perform live, despite listening to his excellent collaboration with Rob York on the Crossing the Country CD. For Brent Bennett is more than an excellent, expressive vocalist, more than an outstanding multi-instrumental virtuoso, even more than the strikingly insightful and original songwriter of Crossing the Country. Bennett is indeed all of these, but he shows that he is also something more on Under My Own Power. He shows that he is also a gifted arranger and, even though he alone plays all the instruments on the CD, could be an excellent bandleader as well. He'd only have to hire other musicians to play the bass, drums and rhythm guitar and sing the background vocals he does as a one-man-band with all the ample multi-tracking capabilities available to him through his own recording studio that he has at his fingertips!

Further, Brent Bennett shows that he has his own distinctive Brent Bennett country-rock sound as well, and as both his arrangements and the musical variety of the songs on Under My Own Power show, this original Brent Bennett Sound is a versatile tour de force.  Its essence, so amply demonstrated on the CD, has at its foundation the riffing of an acoustic rhythm guitar overlaid with stinging electric guitar rock leads and solos.  It is a nice ambience that Bennett's created here, a natural, creative outgrowth of that already extraordinarily creative pop music that gestated from the mid-Sixties into the mid-Seventies, and the musically informed will discern within Bennett's music echoes of America, the Eagles and 1965 Beatles--but only echoes, creative shadings, certainly not copying or cloning. And not only that, he serves his influences well. 
For example, the Beatles-evocative track here, "I'm Gonna Love You," could serve nicely as a Lennon/McCartney creation that George, Paul, John and Ringo would've all felt very comfortable in playing and recording.

And "I'm Gonna Love You," same as with ten of the eleven songs on Under My Own Power, are Bennett originals. The last cut, "Louisiana Is Calling My Name," was written in collaboration with Rob York. Another fulsome display indeed of Bennett's songwriting talent.

Two of the songs Bennett wrote for Under My Own Power he's performed previously. He played "My Heart's in Mississippi" at the Franklin Opry on June 11, and he first recorded "My Kind of Woman" as a member of the roots band Sindacato on its most recent CD, The Cord.

So, indeed, and not at all a surprise, Under My Own Power comprises eleven excellent original songs. Even the two this writer found the weakest lyrically, "Where'd You Hide Your Wings" and "I'm Gonna Love You" would still stand out serviceably as pop singles. And this writer thinks that "Down by the River," "My Heart's in Mississippi" and "My Kind of Woman" would all make it solidly as singles that would deservedly be on the country/rock crossover charts. (However, the reader should be aware that this writer is assuming that kind of discernment, or at least that acceptance of quality over crap, that made so much of the great music of the Sixties and Seventies commercial as well as critical successes.) The others would do better gracing album-length CDs, and would indeed grace such CDs well.

As is the norm for pop music of all genres, the basic theme of Under My Own Power is the love-and-lust relationship between man and woman--given here in all its varieties, nasty as well as joyous. And while "Down by the River," "Where'd You Hide Your Wings," "I'm Gonna Love You" and "My Kind of Woman" celebrate the love relations between the sexes, and "Louisiana Is Calling My Name" is the exuberant crowing of a young man who received his sexual initiation during Mardi Gras, "My Heart's in Mississippi" is an expression of wistful longing and doubt, a ballad of separation from the woman he loves but can't return to now, and hoping that she'll still be there for him when he does return.

The remaining four songs here that have the relationship between the sexes as their themes look at it from its rueful, regretful side. "Annie Where Are You" is the tale of doubt and chagrin at being stood up by the woman he yearns for, and "Love Is a Trap," "Pain in My Past" and "Lioness," as the titles suggest and live up to, are bitter, angry, and yet highly creative, emotionally resonant expressions that, as sung by male singer Brent Bennett, many a feminist might call misogynist. But to be fair all around, to feminism, to Brent Bennett, and to reality, being screwed over by a member of the opposite sex is gender-inclusive, and ripoff intimate relationships are indeed equal opportunity! Change some of the lyrics slightly and then have these songs sung by a woman, and Bennett's truly artistic vitriol would direct itself toward men instead! War, as well as truce, peace, and harmony between the sexes are all there--and go under the name of reality, lest we forget. The one song on Under My Own Power not focusing on the sexual relationship is an affirmative working-class ballad, "Midnight Man," a substantive tale of finding oneself able to escape the drudgery of it all through the solitude and 40-cents-an-hour more granted by working a third-shift job. Brent Bennett knows the realities of working-class life, of class and classism, and he knows how to give them expression in song. 
And he does so not only on "Midnight Man," but also through two phrases he incorporates into "Down by the River," where he limns the duality and satisfaction that comes to him now, "singin' to the rich man's daughter," now as it follows that time before when "I busted my ass for minimum wage." Yes indeed, this writer is enthusiastic about the talent and creativity of Brent Bennett, and isn't hesitant about saying that Bennett should be in Nashville--and no, I don't mean playing for tips in that tourist trap located in Southern Indiana!
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