The Time Out Podcast EP 96 With Guest Stephen Bennett Jnr December 19th 2024

Stephen Bennett Jnr from Ardara Co. Donegal is fastly making a name for himself in Irish Country Music as a young talented singer songwriter. Travelling to perform at gigs in his own county and is also taking to the stage across many venues throughout the country. The now 24 year old entered a Donegal's Got Talent competition in 2017, and came 2nd place with former X Factor judge Louis Walsh involved in assessing the talent. Stephen's singing career its fair to say took off from there and since then he has built up a fine repertoire of songs, the vast majority of them self penned.  He has a debut album coming out in the opening quarter of next year. I travelled to his home to chat to him about this new album plus much more including who he likes to listen to in music himself. 

Chapters

• 2:38 A Good Year For Stephen's Career
• 5:29 Routine Travelling To/From Gigs
• 8:16 Early Part Of Stephen's Career, Coming 2nd In Donegal's Got Talent
• 11:27 Method For Writing Songs
• 13:59 Spotify Not Profitable For Artists
• 16:39 Stephen's Song 'Meet Me Tonight'
• 18:31 Stephen's Song 'It Takes Two'
• 22:16 Dad Stephen Snr's Musical Influence
• 25:21 Other Songs Stephen Has Recorded 'Your Love Came My Way' (self penned) 'Rockabilly Rock' (cover) 'Broken Bottles' (self penned)
• 28:17 Stephen's Song 'Traffic Jam' Written during break from Secondary School due to illness.
• 33:29 Debut Album Approaching / Some Of Songs On It
• 35:00 Lots Of New Young Talent Emerging In Irish Country
• 37:16 Occasional DJ Slot On Owenea FM & Album His Dad Recorded For Charity Years Back
• 41:08 Music Stephen Listens To
• 42:41 How American Country Has Changed
• 47:01 Award Stephen Won Recently