April/May 2023

Traveler

By Tabitha Benedict

Having grown up on opposite sides of the Atlantic and having toured full-time in traveling bands for many years, the two of us have had to spend a lot of time in foreign lands and unfamiliar places far from home. Even since we got married three years ago, we’ve only recently been able to find a place of our own for the first time here in Travelers Rest, South Carolina. Now that idea of ‘Travelers Rest’ has become very dear to us — having a place to call home and a respite from the road, even though we inevitably feel pulled back to our far-off roots and former transient lives. We wrote this song to try and capture some of those bittersweet ideas. Narrated from the point of view of my parents back in Northern Ireland, ‘Traveler’ deals with the wistful feelings of growing older and being away from loved ones. And for this video we filmed some beautiful shots both in our new hometown in South Carolina as well as the North Shore of Northern Ireland near where I grew up.

About the Musician


Hailing from County Armagh, Northern Ireland, Tabitha Benedict could easily be mistaken for American-born-and-raised taking up banjo at age 12, but Tabitha has merely caught a musical wind from the west and made it her own. Tabitha has been nominated for the Instrumentalist of the Year at the IBMA Momentum awards in Raleigh, North Carolina in 2018. Tabitha was one of 16 chosen in 2018 and 2019 to attend the Savannah Acoustic Music Seminar, studying with world-class artists such as Julian Lage, Mike Marshall and Bryan Sutton and Darrel Scott. She can be heard performing with her two brothers in the Northern Irish band Cup O’Joe, and all-female Anglo-Irish Bluegrass Band Midnight Skyracer as well as with her husband David Benedict in their Folk/Bluegrass duo The Foreign Landers.

Foreign Landers — www.theforeignlanders.com/

Cup O’Joe — www.cupojoemusic.com

Tabitha Benedict — www.tabithabenedictmusic.com