Watch Philly’s Ben O’Neill explore the New Great American Songbook

Ben O’Neill is a guitarist from Philadelphia who has performed and toured with artists such as Common, Kanye West, Jill Scott, John Legend, and Erykah Badu. Ben is also a recording artist in his own right, and is currently working on a series of twelve live cover videos of modern American songwriters. He releases one video in the series each month, and covers so far have included Sturgil Simpson, Jason Isbell, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Duke Ellington and others.

This month’s video (the ninth in the series) is a cover of Cary Ann Hearst’s song “The Hardest Thing,” the video for which was recorded at Caplan Center at the University of the Arts, where Ben is also a guitar teacher and graduate. Watch the video below. The video series will conclude with a live band performance at the Kimmel Center on December 9th.