Paul Bennett, Phil Wintermute and hosts of unknown others who will be playing with us unannounced, as the occasion dictates. That's just the way we roll. Extemporaneous, Spontaneous, Extraneous and any other kind of aneous you can git.
Influences
Penal Servitude, Naval Electronics. Methamphetamines, Motor-cycle mania, meditation, Taoism, Buddhism, Communism, socialism, terrorism, Fascism and, of course, just plain old every day humanitarianism.
Sounds Like
Like, say, the wind picked up an empty trash can and sent it tumbling end over end down a narrow alley and it made this rhythmic ringing as it bounced, with various counterpoints from striking assorted objects in its path and the resultant sound echoed off the buildings and came into your ears as you stood out on your fire escape smoking, rattling almost like the babbling of a brook.
Scratch and Sniff bring together a lifetime of musical aspiration, dedication and fulfillment.
Two lifetimes that become one when the music starts to play.
Paul Bennet has been a mainstay and sometimes a sore point in the music scene around The State of Michigan since the beginning of the current era. Dating back to the so-called "Sixties," Paul discovered the "Pretty Shakey String Band" and began making the transition form "Biker" to String Musician, rampaging around on his motorcycle with a fiddle slung over his back.
Since those wild days of yesteryore, Paul has played music in countless venues around the state and in a number of various bands of greater and lesser note. All the while gathering lore and learning and writing tunes and becoming a kind of Musical Godfather who spreads the blessing of music by building and repairing instruments, making instruments available for many aspiring players and teaching everyone he meets, wherever he goes.
Phil Wintermute first played with "The Gould Mountain Boys" back in High School and later performed in an un-named duo with his late brother Rob. In the Eighties he played Mandolin in the popular Up-North string band, "Leather Breeches." Some years later he played guitar accompaniment for fiddler, Delia Severin, in an Irish flavored dance band called "Spotted Pony," Playing dance halls far and wide thoughout the Highlands of North Central Washington. More recently he has performed solo with guitar singing his own songs and others' songs he has learned to love.
