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Arvie Bennett and his wife, Bunny, cashed in their retirements, gave away most of their earthly possessions and moved to Nashville, Tenn., in search of that “Neon Rainbow”.
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Arvie and Bunny Bennett.
"I guess we looked at the situation like this,” Bennett said. “The band had just broken up, our children were older, and we sure weren’t getting any younger. There was no better time than the present to give Nashville a shot.”
The first order of business was to find a home in or around Nashville that could support a broke songwriter and a poor social worker. The Bennetts quickly came to the conclusion that living in Nashville wasn’t an option.
“Renting an apartment in Nashville is extremely expensive and we needed to come up with an imaginative option, so we went ‘Tiny’”, Bennett said.
They bought a plot of land in the backwoods of Tennessee and carved out their own little piece of heaven.
Working on the house in the first few months gave Bennett the emotional rest that he needed from the years of touring with the Arvie Jr. Band. He rediscovered talents that he had long forgotten.
Bunny wrote a children’s book “Christmas Without Grandmother” which Arvie illustrated. Bunny served the Williamston County School District as a school social worker and Arvie continued to hone his guitar skills.
Arvie begin playing again. The time off had given him a new appreciation of music and brought the enjoyment back into his playing.
“After spending so much time with myself and with my music, I decided that I didn’t want to beg people to let me play anymore. ” Bennett said. “If someone enjoyed what I had to offer, then I would share it with them and if not, I would just enjoy playing to myself. Either way, I was no longer going to define my self-worth or my musical ability by what others thought.”
Bennett put his name out in the Nashville Singer/Songwriter circuit and within a few weeks was playing almost nightly.
Bennett signed with Winter Records in October 2018 and has recorded and released a six-song extended play, “Just A Cowboy”, and its music video.
Arvie and Bunny will spend the next year touring the country promoting his EP and have scheduled two tours that will bring them through the upstate
“Bunny and I want the tours in South Carolina to express our gratitude to all the venues, owners, and friends who have supported us over the years,” Arvie said. “We cannot even begin to name all the people who have impacted us and played a role in helping us make it this far. There is still a lot of work left to do but we know that with the support, thoughts and prayers of our friends and family we will be successful.”
Upcoming tour through the Upstate
March
16 – Wadestock, Pelzer, 1 p.m.
17 – Brewery 85, Greenville, 2-4 p.m.
19 – Your Carolina, 10 a.m.
19 – Happy Trails Cowboy Church. Pelzer, 7 p.m.
21 – Fillin’ Station, Greenwood, 7 p.m.
22 – The Mason Jar, Greer, 8 p.m.
23 – Dragonfly Winemarket, Shelby, N.C., 6:30 p.m.
24 – Happy Trails Cowboy Church, Pelzer, 7 p.m.
April
26 – Yee-Haw Brewing, Greenville, 7 p.m.
May
24 – Libby’s, Spartanburg, 8 p.m.
25 – Triple D’s Racks, Walhalla, 9 p.m.
28 – Niteline, WGGS TV, 8 p.m.
30 – Wild Ace Pizza, Greer, 7 p.m.
31 – Sweet Sippin’, Greenville, 7 p.m.
June
1 – Delaney’s Irish Pub, Spartanburg, 9:30 p.m.
2 – Freedom Biker Church, Liberty, 10 a.m.
• Website: www.arviejr.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arvie.bennett
• Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/arviejrmusic/