Originally recorded on July 11, 2008, Live in Lexington, Under the Copper Beech, was officially released on August 30, 2011. This is the band’s second live disc and gives a big nod to the fact that first and foremost, the myriad awards we have won for our studio recordings not withstanding, we truly consider ourselves a live band.

Live music, over time, tends to have an ebb and flow quality to it. Some days are just killer live shows, other days, while good, might not be great. As a concert attendee myself, the hope is always that the show at hand is going to be special. As a musician, it feels like we go for it every time, and some days just have more going for them. July 11, 2008 had quite a bit going for it:
- Lexington. We started playing Friday night shows in Lexington back in 2001. The first show featured John Zevos on mandolin, Arnie Ashford on bass and myself and our artist Bob von Elgg on acoustic guitars. 2008 marked the eighth Friday night show in Lexington. The familiarity between audience and band was pretty high by then.

Set up at 1875 Mass Ave., Lexington, MA. L to R: Ben Rudnick, E. Rudnick, G. Hakim and K. Gronlund singing Cowgirl Song.
- 2000 people – Our first show had quite a good crowd featuring all ages. Young, old, walking, crawling - an eye-opening generational cross section. We realized this was the audience for us. By 2008 our shows had become an event. Given good weather, we’re pretty much guaranteed a crowd on a Friday night in Lexington. In 2008 the estimate was 2000 people on the town green, site of the start of the Revolutionary War. That’s a lot of people who are familiar with us. That many people could make any band feel like the Rolling Stones for an evening.

The scene on July 11, 2008 at the Town Green in Lexington, MA - Deep Into Summer – Since 2002, the band has been playing around 30+ shows every summer. What this means to us is that the summer brings out the best of BR&F. Playing music independently or as a band, is like anything else, if you do it regularly you get better.
- Mark Yacovone Farewell – Mark and I had played in a previous band together called The Eds. One of the highlights of The Eds was that we almost got to play with President Clinton on Martha’s Vinyard back in the 90’s. When BR&F needed keyboards for the Fun & Games disc circa 2002, Mark was first call and he never left, until July 12, 2008. The day after Live in Lexington was recorded Mark moved to Mississippi. With Mark leaving we knew we had one more show to enjoy together and we were all intent on making it good.

From left to right, Rob Lee, Mark Yacovone, John Zevos and Arnie Ashford - Robert M. Lee – Augmenting the BR&F quintet was our good friend Rob Lee on saxophones. Rob had been playing with us off and on at big shows and was well versed in the music and how we go about making it, i.e. no set lists, get your two cents in where you can and, above all, pay attention!
- Multi-tracked Show – There’s always a bit of a charge knowing that you’re trying to get a good recording. We set up to multi-track the show which means that each instrument and voice ends up on its own recorded track. Later, when you go to put it all together, each track can be adjusted for optimal sound quality afterward.

Multi-tracking means a lot of wires.
With all those points going for it, the recording worked out! We’re pretty tough critics and we feel that Live in Lexington is an excellent snapshot of the band at that time. A lasting aural memory of a night the band and audience were all flying high!
Recording Notes and Track List
As mentioned, the Live at Lexington disc was taken from a single show on July 11, 2008. We played two 55-minute sets for a 110-minute performance. The disc is 78:02. Seventy-eight minutes and two seconds is the maximum amount of time you can put on a single CD. 78:03 and you have a problem.

The engine: Jared Steer on drums and percussion.
A word about the songs… One of the things we do in BR&F from our very first show to the one we played the other day, is to pepper our sets with songs which might not commonly be considered “kids music.” Truth be told, we don’t consider any of this to be “kid’s music.” We look at it all as people music. We love the original songs. We love the traditional songs and the cover songs too. It’s all one long song after awhile with variations. We’ve had too much experience with young and old, black, white, open, closed and everything in between to target a minority of the population. It’s “all good” as they say.
Some notable highlights… the Sally Salamander>Juicy Black Fly sequence is how the songs were intended to be played; once Juicy Black Fly (JBF) was written in response to Sally Salamander. If you go to the Blast Off (2004) disc and listen to the beginning of JBF you’ll hear that it begins where Sally Salamander ends on Fun and Games (2002.) This is a real fun sequence to play and I almost got all the words just exactly perfect.
The Mama Don’t ‘Low>Big River sequence was actually Mama Don’t ‘Low>M.T.A. That is more of what we usually do but having recorded M.T.A. on our Blast Off disc and our Live at the Playground disc, and having limited minutes for the CD, Big River (right key, right tempo) fit in really well so we just glued it together in the studio. None of the performance was altered, just where it came in the sequence.
2008 was the first summer that we played Walk of Life by Dire Straits. It’s just a great tune that I started working on, managed to get it down and showed the guys the chords before a show. No, not this show! Mark picked up the organ licks on the accordion and we’ve been playing it ever since.
At the point this was recorded we had already started recording the A Frog Named Sam disc but it was still eight months away from completion. Sam seems significant enough for things to be Before Sam or After Sam. For me, it’s really fun to hear some of the original songs from the first four studio discs embellished with that jolt of live, in the moment energy.

Young fan with guitar.
Lastly… I know I had a few songs I wanted to play on July 11, 2008, to try and get a good version for the recording, I imagine John did too, but generally speaking, we had no set list.
Ben Rudnick and Friends Website Store - Free shipping!
- I Like Silver, I Like Gold
- Skip to My Lou
- Twisting Low
- Hava Nagila
- My Name is Burt
- Sally Salamander>
- Juicy Black Fly
- Mama Don’t ‘Low>
- Big River
- Rainy Day
- Cowgirl Song
- Jambalaya>
- Hey Good Lookin’
- Walk of Life
- Monkey and the Engineer
- Countdown>
- Rocket Ship Man>
- I Got A New Friend
- Spin
- Band Introductions
- Macaroni & Cheese
- Oh Boy!
- I Need A Hand
- Thanks!
- When the Saints Go Marching In
A Few Reviews
These are some mega-musically-talented dudes, and their style is really their own. It’s a fabulous addition to your kiddie music collection for sure.
~ theopinionatedparent.com
This live performance album made us feel like we were actually at the concert while eating our dinner in our own backyard! It made me sway my hips and tap my toes while singing along to the familiar cover songs. The original songs are sure to become family favorites as well. Ben & Friends have a very unique and versatile sound covering many genres of music, which is a perfect way to expose children to various styles of music. This is a very awesome and fun album!
~ Simple-MomReviews.com
Songs from their first six recordings, popular favorite cover tunes, and an amazing undercurrent of energy and vigor, Live in Lexington is a guitar-and-vocals performance to remember, further enhanced with additional instruments ranging from the mandolin and drums to the accordion and even the saxophone. An enthusiastic and energetic performance, especially recommended for playing during long family car trips or children’s parties.
~ Midwest Book Review




























For kids’ music cd