Benjamin Doerr

Benjamin Doerr has music running through his veins. Musically gifted, and with an ear for the emotionally persuasive, Doerr discovered his musical bent early when studying piano and saxophone. He recalls, “It wasn’t until partway through my sixth grade year that I happened upon my grandmother’s old guitar. I remember picking it up and wishing more than anything that I could make it sound good.” It was a fortuitous moment that captured his passion and sent him studying the one subject that meant most. The language of music gave him the tangible form to craft layers of subtle meaning.

Jazz influences in high school and exposure to bluegrass in college enabled Doerr to think across musical dimensions and triggered a more expansive creativity. Forming his own bluegrass band, Mississippi Rising, Doerr played mandolin while fronting as the lead vocalist – a position he had accidentally been thrust into years before. “I started singing by sheer accident,” he admits. But it was through singing – and especially through early songwriting – that he could voice his pensive search for answers in the most authentic way.

The stage was set for the birth of his first album with the guitar serving as the platform for his soulful lyrics, supported by the nuances of vocal harmonies.

Benjamin Doerr’s soulful musical debut, Sketches of a Real Life, captures the bittersweet moments of the human condition. Born and raised in the Midwest, and transplanted to the city of Seattle, Doerr’s cultivated “hometown” artistry reminds us to connect with that part of ourselves that lives authentically.