Ben Caplan

“…live he is one of the finest acts existing on the circuit today. A must see musical troubadour, beard and all.” ~ The AU Review

Ben Caplan is both the roar of the hurricane and the eye of the storm, a Canadian singer-songwriter and entertainer known for his energetic live shows and award-winning studio recordings. Perpetually on tour since 2011, Ben has played nearly 2000 concerts in 28 countries in that time.

His 2018 project Old Stock was both an album and a highly-acclaimed musical theatre production which has toured the world since 2017, including a 7-week Off-Broadway run which garnered 6 Drama Desk Award nominations, a NYTimes Critic’s Pick, and numerous other international accolades.

He has an uncanny ability to channel both wild abandon and quiet introspection. His songwriting pulls from many diverse influences but both his music and his lyrics regularly draw from his Jewish heritage. Often mixing biblical imagery and klezmer inflected melodies, Caplan re-appropriates ancient sounds and themes with a decidedly contemporary twist.

His newest project, Hold On!,  is a diverse cycle of songs with a full new band of collaborators. Blending old world folk traditions with electronic instruments and sound design, Ben and the band have created a futuristic nostalgia with one foot in the past and the other stretched across the abyss of the end of the world. The show, with its energetic frenzy and moments of unexpected tenderness, lives somewhere in the space between theatre and music. It’s a kind of cabaret to mourn and celebrate the end of the world.

The sound is rooted in Caplan’s resonant baritone voice, at times sounding like lamb’s wool, and in another moment like steel wool, supported by a wide-ranging tapestry of piano, accordion, organ, clarinet, saxophone, violin, drums, and the occasional acoustic guitar.

With his enormous beard, unruly mane, intimately booming voice and beguiling charm, Caplan brings a striking presence to the stage.

“What is extraordinary is Caplan’s ability to be at once incisive and sweet, brutal and clairvoyant, swinging from moments of tenderness and volubility to fiery bursts of dark humour, all while combining the forces of schtick, irony and narrative to propel the listener through a study of love, loss and struggle.” ~ East Coast Arts & Culture, Canada.