Benevento brings Woodstock attitude to Sonoma

Sunday night, Oct. 16 will be a special one at the Sebastiani Theatre. Marco Benevento and his band pass through Sonoma on their West Coast tour, bringing with them their soulful and rockin,’ rootsy and jammy music. Benevento took time out from his pre-tour preparations to talk about his career, his new album and his life in upstate New York.

Benevento is a talented keyboard player who has also engineered and produced many records. Immersed as a kid in a musically jazzy environment, he burst on the New York scene in 1999. He formed the Benevento/Russo duo in 2001 with drummer Joe Russo. They released two albums and received much critical success. Russo later formed Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, a Grateful Dead tribute band, and Benevento plays keyboards in that ensemble.

The keyboardist is on the road now with a trio he is very excited to be performing with, consisting of Karina Rykman (bass and vocals) and Chris Corsico (drums).

“We will play about 90% original songs…Karina will sing a bunch of them,” Benevento said.

Benevento is an 11-year resident of Woodstock, New York. While talking on his phone, he casually mentioned, “It’s a beautiful fall day. It’s raining, and leaves are changing. It’s just gorgeous.” The crunching of the autumn leaves could be heard under foot as Benevento walked to his studio.

Living in Woodstock, he is surrounded by a ridiculously well-known and active group of musicians. Some of those people are Amy Helm, John Medeski, Donald Fagen, Jack DeJohnette, Larry Campbell and Carl Newman. The keyboardist said, “When I first moved up here, I was the new guy in town, and was busy playing and recording with all sorts of friends, old and new.”

Benevento was also moved by the musical history of the area. He noted its proximity to the Big Apple and the ease with which a musician, say Bob Dylan, could find relative peace allowing the creative juices to flow. In the late 1960s, the Woodstock area was home to Dylan, the Band, Levon Helm, Van Morrison, David Bowie and Jimi Hendrix. The lasting effect of that heady heritage lingers, and the recipients of that muse know they have big shoes to fill.

Benevento had the occasion to step into hallowed territory one day when he visited the nearby “Big Pink,” the house (now a Vrbo rental; how do you like them apples?) that was once the home of The Band. It was in this structure that they wrote the material featured on their first two hugely important albums (“Music from Big Pink” and “The Band”). Below the house is the basement referred to in the once widely bootlegged, now readily available “The Basement Tapes,” live takes of new songs that The Band and Bob Dylan thought they were recording for their own edification. Benevento said, “Going into the basement at Big Pink was unbelievably special.”

Benevento’s has a new album called “Benevento.” His website indicates that the title is a nod to Paul McCartney’s first solo album, also named after his surname. Like Paul did on “McCartney,” Benevento plays all the instruments (except a few choice percussion parts played by Mamadouba “Mimo” Camara).

In addition to playing the instruments, Benevento recorded and engineered the record. A self-confessed gear head, Benevento was a kid in a candy store, surrounded by stacks of keyboards, synthesizers, amps, old school tape recorders and vintage microphones. “I loved the sounds I was getting. There’s the old, saturated color of the tone, and the analog hiss is present, cutting in and out. I was able to experiment with the different methods of recording,” Benevento said.

Unlike “McCartney,” “Benevento” was done largely because of the pandemic. As such, it is a time capsule of sorts, providing a record of the artist in an unusual, solitary time in his career.

It has a loose, undeniably casual feel about it.

In the Sebastiani concert, Benevento will drive his band hard through structured jams that allow him to cut loose on the keys.

An interesting local note, Benevento plays on two of Woodstock resident Happy Traum’s records. Traum is Valley singer/songwriter Adam Traum’s father, and was one of the first musicians to decamp to Woodstock in the ‘60s.

The Marco Benevento show is a Jeff Bundschu and (((folkYEAH!))) production. The doors to this all ages show open at 7 p.m. Visit sebastianitheatre.com.