Ben Helson

MCKENZIE (December 18) –- The McKenzie community last saw Ben Helson at one of seven sold-out Renaissance performances at the Bethel College Performing Arts Center. This weekend, the 21-year-old Kentucky native will perform on the Grand Ole Opry with bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs.

Peter Jeffrey, director of Renaissance, said Ben will perform with Skaggs at the Opry this Friday and Saturday evening. Helson will perform with Kentucky Thunder. The show will also air on Opry Live! via the Great American County TV network.

On November 2, Ben stepped on the Opry stage for the first time when he was invited to perform alongside bluegrass great, Rhonda Vincent, a seven-time International Bluegrass Music Association female vocalist of the year.

Ben was 13 when he asked his dad to show him some chords on the guitar. “He showed me three chords and I stayed up that night practicing,” Ben said in a Banner feature highlighting his Opry debut. The next morning, his father was astounded when he played the old bluegrass song “Home Sweet Home” flawlessly.

Ben then found a tutor at Kentucky Music in Bowling Green, where he was schooled in old rock-n-roll songs. His focus remained on classic rock and blues: “It was just not a cool thing to do to play bluegrass,” he explained. “I remember being so embarrassed the first time I played a show with Dad and some kids from school were there.”

By that time he was a student at Edmonson County High School in Brownsville. His plans after graduation were simple: to complete his general education requirements at Western before transferring to study at Middle Tennessee State University’s Department of Recording Industry.

“It’s definitely unlike me to move away from my family,” said Ben, who admitted the planned years at Western were orchestrated to keep him close to home. Yet the opportunity offered by Bethel’s Renaissance scholarship was too good to turn down.

Ben traveled to Bethel to audition for Renaissance and says, “I was nervous that I wouldn’t make it in.” But make it he did, and he joined Renaissance in the second semester of its existence. There he found a solid core of friends and imported a couple more. Fellow guitarists Adam Catt and Dustin Doyle, both from Brownsville, joined the group in short succession.

“Renaissance has been a great experience,” says Ben. “Any success that I have will probably be owed to that and my dad, as far as encouragement. He’s always been really supportive.”

Being thrown into the eclectic styles of music performed by the nationally-renowned choir and instrumental ensemble challenged Ben’s skills, a test that surpassed even his own expectations. Jazz, he says, is what pushed him hardest, along with music theory.

Ben has been exposed to a variety of styles of music at Bethel. It has helped him hone his skills as a musician and to grow as a person.

Read about Ben's debut at the Opry.

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