Benjamin Lee Paterson & The Ryes Release 'Start It Up Again' Video

By: iO Staff, June 15, 2012

Blending bluegrass, folk, outlaw country and rockabilly, Benjamin Lee Paterson’s songs are quiet anthems for the year-round population; people who live hard and party harder, and don’t expect their lives are the stuff wistful country songs are made of.

Born in Wales to a folk singer mother and a Welsh carpenter father, Paterson says he was basically “raised under a bar stool.” After stints in Baltimore and the North Shore, he's shacking up in Woods Hole, the closest thing he has to a hometown.

With the help of The Ryes, featuring Topher Maffei on percussion, Josh Dayton on upright bass, and Randy Gummow on guitar, he’s recording a new album from his home studio. If the songs they've released so far are any indication, be prepared with a bottle of Knob Creek and your long-lost sweetheart on speed dial.

A new video from the Benjamin Lee Paterson & The Ryes, featuring the single "Start It Up Again," is an ode to Woods Hole, as well as the seasonal tides all Cape Codders are familiar with.

"I consider myself from Woods Hole, and my music is inherently affected by that. Woods Hole has both sides: the good times, the steel drums and shellfish, but it also has that harsh, windy winter," Paterson said. "It’s got the feel of a lot of people’s hometowns."

Start It Up Again from Daniel Cojanu on Vimeo.

Benjamin Lee Paterson and The Ryes play a happy hour every Thursday at Quicks Hole (6 Luscombe Avenue, Woods Hole) and play a gig at Grumpy's Pub (22 Locust Street, Falmouth) on Friday, June 15.