Ridley Bent

Ridley Bent is a Canadian singer/songwriter who began his recording career by blending his unique storytelling with various music genres to create a sound that was called "hick-hop" and grew to become one of the cornerstones of Vancouver's young alternative country movement. Bent was born into a military family in Nova Scotia and spent his youth as an "army brat," traveling extensively and eventually spending his formative years in Alberta. He started learning to play guitar at an early age, listening to such bands as Rage Against the Machine, Sublime, and the Beastie Boys. He moved to Vancouver by way of Whistler in 2000, getting a job as a security guard, a vocation that gave him lots of time to read such Americana authors as Louis l'Amour and John Steinbeck. These authors greatly influenced his writing style -- character-driven story lines with such strong narrative themes as drugs, desperation, ambition, love, racing, unrequited love, and murder, all told with dark humor, skilled rhyming, and a novelist's feel for plot twists and unexpected sentiment. Bent began moonlighting as a performer, developing his live presentation while performing at open mic nights and busking on the beach. At the 2002 BC Festival of the Arts, he met producer Chin Injeti, a former R&B vocalist whose enthusiastic support led to the recording of Bent's first album. Blam collected together five years of Bent's narrative songs over backing tracks of hip-hop, funk, scratching, and even hard rock riffs to create a unique sound that became labeled as "hick-hop." The album was released to considerable acclaim and independent airplay in Canada; Bent was able to tour steadily, both with a backing band and as a solo artist. His live performance enthralled his new fans, both for his on-stage charisma...