TUNED IN to ROSS BELLENOIT

Our Featured Tuned In artist this week is Ross Bellenoit. He is a talented singer songwriter from the Philadelphia area who has earned a great deal of recognition for his guitar playing. As a member of Amos Lee's band in 2007, he toured with legendary artists such as Elvis Costello, and Bob Dylan. He now leads his own band, and is quickly gaining steam in our local music community.

We caught up with him at The Blinkin Lincoln. Please enjoy his biography.

Ross Bellenoit at 26 has already forged quite a career path, racking up impressive credits as a guitarist, composer and producer. After moving to Philadelphia in 2003, Bellenoit quickly became the leading axe-man for a thriving singer-songwriter scene that spawned Amos Lee (Blue Note), Birdie Busch (Bar None), and ASCAP award-winner John Francis. More recently, he's been making his mark as a songwriter himself, and also as a recording producer and arranger. Raised in the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts, Bellenoit trained on classical guitar for ten years (and viola for five) before studying jazz guitar at the University of the Arts  but Bellenoit is not the sort of musician who lets his studies do the talking. A spontaneous, in-the-moment improviser and consummate team player, Bellenoit has spent the past six years training himself to stay on his toes, and to anticipate the un-obvious. "If there's one thing that I try to keep aware of," Bellenoit says, "it's the song's temperament. Whether you're playing 'How High The Moon' to a handful of jazz aficionados or singing a folk tune that you wrote yourself, you have to surrender yourself completely to the moment. Serve the song, and the song will serve you."

Bellenoit more often than not can be found in the recording studio. He has contributed to a wide array of albums  rock records, jazz records, gospel records, R&B records, even a song about cheeseburgers written for Philadelphia Inquirer food critic Craig Laban. He's worked with renowned producers John Carter Cash, Phil Nicolo and Brian McTear  and now, working out of Turtle Studios in Old City, Bellenoit is producing records for singer-songwriters himself. His own group, The Little Rolling Thunder Revue, will release its full-length debut later this year, written and produced by Bellenoit start-to-finish.

Bellenoit has also racked up a considerable amount of touring experience, most notably touring with Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello as a member of Amos Lee's band in 2007. He's made multiple regional tours with honky-tonk group The Sweetback Sisters (with whom he appeared on NPR's "A Prairie Home Companion") and fellow Philadelphian Birdie Busch, and he joined Joseph Parsons on tour in Europe in 2008.

Though he often collaborates with singer-songwriters, Bellenoit firmly believes it's important to keep mixing things up. He continues to hone his improvisational skills with local jazz combo the Jones Quintet, while keeping country chops sharp with the Sweetback Sisters. He is also likely to pick up any instrument and make music with it  banjo, mandolin, lap steel, bass, drums, piano, you name it.

"Versatility is the key," he says. "I've found myself playing all types of music, with all sorts of people, and there was something to be learned from each experience. I'm still learning today. I pray that I'll never get to the point where I think that I know everything  where's the fun in that?" AWARDS:

Featured on NPR's "A Prarie Home Companion hosted by Garrison Keillor" performing with The Sweetback Sisters as part of their "People with Talent in their Twenties Contest in April 2007. 2nd place winners!

Ross Bellenoit Quintet featured in National Distributed JAZZIZ Magazine on Student Music Edition (October 2005) Sampler CD, featuring original composition "Tria."

Performed with the Absolute Jazz Alumni Group (Miro Sprague, Chris Frantz-Dale and Riley Godleski) at the International Association of Jazz Educators Annual Conference in New York City in January of 2004.

Downbeat Magazine 2001 National Student Music Awards: 2001- "Outstanding performance" for instrumental soloist in the blues/pop/rock category. UMass 2000 High School Jazz festivals. Received outstanding musician award and scholarship to UMass summer camp program "Jazz in July." You are now Tuned In to Ross Bellenoit.

On the web- www.rossbellenoit.com

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