UnASSISTED LIVING Denver CO Indie Pop Folk
The UnAssisted Living Story
Scott Bennett, Peggy Dennis, and Ken Morris- officially became UnAssisted Living one evening back in late 2009 after a fine Mexican dinner. Our name could only have come from the brilliant mind of Scott Bennett, who mentioned it in passing as we were paying the bill. But it stuck, and always brings a smile to our listeners. What lead up to that evening is a story of friendship and fate.
Ken and Scott met in 2003 when Ken was recording a CD of his original songs at Raven Recording with the legendary Jim Ratts of Denver’s Runaway Express at the helm. Scott Bennett, who was lead guitarist for Runaway, was brought in to add guitar tracks and help with studio engineering. Scott and Ken hit it off and after that first CD experience and began talking about a bigger CD project. By 2006, One More SipKen’s second CD of original songs was born with Scott engineering, producing, and playing guitar and Ken playing and singing his songs. This CD featured the talents of others in the Runaway Express community of musicians. As Ken’s songwriting evolved, and Scott’s dream of his own home recording studio- SoundHouse – became a reality, they decided to start performing and recording together as the duo, Bennett/Morris.
In early 2009, the duo was looking to add female vocals to a couple of songs on the Mothership EP and asked vocalist Peggy Dennis to add those vocals. Scott and Peggy knew each other having recorded and performed on other projects together. After Mothership we officially became UnAssisted Living and began working on a new recording project. During early 2010 and into the summer, Ken and Scott began laying down basic guitar, click, and vocal tracks. Scott kept upgrading his ProTools with numerous complex Plug-Ins and adding fantastic cables, electronics, and microphones to SoundHouse. Peggy started recording vocals and we knew we had something special.
Late in the summer of 2010, a supposed benign growth on a nerve sheath in Scott’s neck was removed, the area irradiated, and Scott pronounced successfully treated. However, later on that year, a chest scan showed tumors in his lungs. Scott embarked on a journey that involved new studies and treatments which he shared with his friends and fans, as well as his personal insights, via his blog spot. We are very blessed that Scott was able to record his vocals on the second verse and choruses of Tribes the single from the CD of the same name. He left us on October 29, 2011. Scott was part of a widespread musical community, which will miss him immensely.
Taking the tracks that Scott had already recorded, Brian Hunter of Sawtelle Studios at Swallow Hill finished the additional recording, mixing and mastering. Stephan Hume had the difficult, yet brilliantly executed, task of recording lead guitar and supporting vocals that would have been Scott’s. Butch Hause and Chris Stongle, friends and bandmates of Scott’s, recorded bass and drums at Butch’s studio ‘The Ranger Station’ in Berthoud, Co along with recording Hannah Alkire on cello. With the help of our ‘Kickstarter.com’ supporters, Ken and Peggy were able to complete the UnAssisted Living CD Tribes in July 2012.
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