Ben "Swamp Donkey" Brenner

"The Swamp Donkey will tote your blues on up the road...original songs and music about the things we all face everyday...open, honest, and real music for a change. Once you Get Donkey it sticks to you like bacon grease in granny's kitchen. It's gritty, real blues you just can't wash off." - David Hughes, Owner, Side Hustle Entertainment, Inc.

"The real deal." - Deb Finney, host of The Friday Blues House Party on KABF 88.3 FM (Little Rock, AR)

"You can never have too much Donkey." Gina Parks, Owner, The Big Chill (Hot Springs, AR)

Ben "Swamp Donkey" Brenner first got the blues as a young boy growing up in Los Angeles, CA. His daddy, Barry "Big B" Brenner, (a great country bluesman in his own right), bought an 1959 Seeburg jukebox. You know the kind that looks like a martian Cadillac, with three fins across the front? That's what we're talking about. It was full of old 45 RPM records. And everyday after school, the Donkey would light up that box, pick random letters and numbers, and soak up the sounds that came out: Ray Charles, Slim Harpo, Hank Williams, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Elmore James, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin. It was a master class in the blues, and it planted a sound deep in the Donkey's head.

In the 30 years since those after school juke sessions, the Donkey chased that sound, teaching himself guitar and harmonica and slowly developing a body of raw, authentic songs. These songs variously conjure the delta, the hill country, the honky tonk, and the coffee house - but they don't sound like anybody. They are part original, part traditional, and all Donkey.

The Donkey has taken his Swamp Donkey style and his Swamp Donkey tunes to stages big and small all over the South. His performance resume includes:

• Four time challenger at the International Blues Challenge, Memphis, TN (2009, 2012, 2016, 2019), representing the Spa City Blues Society (Hot Springs, AR) twice; the Buffalo River Blues Society (Leslie, AR) once; and the Arkansas River Blues Society (Little Rock, AR) once
• The Hot Springs Blues Festival (2009, 2012, and booked for Aug. 2019) (Hot Springs, AR)
• The Main Street Food Truck Festival (2014 - 2018) (Little Rock, AR)
• The King Biscuit Blues Festival, Rising Biscuit Stage (2012, 2014) (Helena, AR)
• HarvestFest (2018) (Little Rock, AR)
• Representative headlining and supporting gigs throughout Arkansas include: The Big Chill and Maxine's (Hot Springs, AR), The Afterthought, The Arkansas Repertory Theater, Juanita's, The Rev Room, and The White Water Tavern (Little Rock, AR); and George's (Fayetteville, AR)