The jukebox is busted, the neon flickers like a bad memory, and the only thing keeping the walls from caving in is the low, greasy growl of a Hammond B3. That’s where "Barstool Benny" comes in-half legend, half cautionary tale, and all soul.  

Drums: Louie "Shakes" DiAngelo
Bass: Sonny "The Slug" Harris
Organ: Benny

Produced in LA by Lou Mercer.

©1981, 2025 Press Your Luck Records, Inc. All rights reserved.

Barstool Benny

"Benny Plays the Hits" ain't your grandma’s greatest hits record- it’s a barstool confessional, a jukebox jam session where the songs are half-remembered but the feeling cuts deep. Benny pounds the Hammond like it owes him money, pouring sweat, smoke, and stories into every note. These ain't chart-toppers, but they’ve been howled into the night by drunks and dreamers for decades.  

The grooves are loose, the whiskey’s neat, and the past-due bar tab ain’t getting paid anytime soon. No frills, no pretense- just Benny, his B3, with Frankie and Jimmy holding down the rhythm while the room spins slow.  

Real instruments. No gimmicks. Just the sound of a man playing like there’s nothing left to lose.  

Drums: Frankie "Thumper" Morello  
Bass: Jimmy "Two Hands" DelVecchio  
Organ: Benny
Guitar: Lou Mercer

Produced by Lou Mercer.
Special thanks to Bert "Cat" Thompson. What would we do without you?

©1992, 2025 Press Your Luck Records, Inc. All rights reserved.

Benny Plays The Hits

The New Indie Release from Barstool Benny

Dusted off, re-recorded, and dripping with that late-night, backroom soul—The Days Run Wild crawls out of another shoebox full of forgotten demos, polished just enough to keep the grit where it belongs. Every track bleeds straight from the heart of The Barstool Benny Trio, with Benny grinding out smoky organ grooves, Thumper Morello and Boom-Boom Granger holding down the pocket on drums like men with grudges, Jimmy “Two Hands” on bass, and special guest Mr. Lou Mercer handling guitar duties with the kind of effortless cool that only comes from knowing better days and worse nights.

Special thanks to Lou Mercer, who produces albums the way he mixes drinks – strong enough to make you forget tomorrow's problems.

Produced by Lou Mercer.

Remember, Folks: The notes that matter most are the ones you play between last call and sunrise. Everything else is just filling time.
©2025 Press Your Luck Records, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Days Run Wild

Rainbirds finds the Barstool Benny Jazz Trio at their smokiest-four moody tracks full of swagger, sorrow, and late-night charm. Every drink has a story. Every regret has a groove.

Personnel:
Drums: Thumper Morello
Bass: Jimmy Two Hands
Organ: Barstool Benny

Recorded live after hours at The Yellow Canary.
Produced by: Lou Mercer.
Engineered by: Wires Morales.

© 1992, 2025 Press Your Luck Records & Tapes

Barstool Benny Jazz Trio – Rainbirds (EP)

THE LOST DEMOS VOL. 1
BARSTOOL BENNY JAZZ TRIO

PRESS YOUR LUCK RECORDS & TAPES PRESENTS

For immediate release:
PRESS YOUR LUCK RECORDS & TAPES UNEARTHS THE HOLY GRAIL OF DIVE BAR JAZZ

Some nights ain't meant for the daylight crowd. Some music's too raw for the sunrise.

After thirty-two years gathering dust in a locked cabinet behind Mama Lou's bar, these seven sonic confessions from The Barstool Benny Jazz Trio have finally escaped captivity. Recorded live at Mama Lou's Orchid Lounge in one whiskey-soaked night in 1992, these tracks were immediately confiscated by Mama Lou herself, who declared them "too goddamn honest for public consumption."
"Benny was bleeding that night," recalls Mama Lou. "Not from any wound you could bandage. The kinda bleeding that happens when a man's soul springs a leak. I locked those tapes away 'cause some pain ain't meant for entertainment."

The Hammond B3 groans under Benny's fingers like a sinner at confession, while Frankie "Thumper" Morello's drums sound like he's building a staircase to redemption one broken step at a time. Jimmy "Two Hands" 
DelVecchio plays that upright bass like he's digging his own grave, and Lou Mercer's guitar cuts through it all like a stiletto in a street fight.

These aren't songs. They're evidence. Evidence that beauty can grow in the cracks of the concrete, that salvation sometimes smells like cigarettes and cheap cologne, that some of the best music ever made never made a dime.

TRACK LISTING:
1. Pawnshop Communion
2. The Devil's Training Wheels
3. Mama Lou's Medicine
4. Lester The Nightfly
5. Three-Legged Dog Blues
6. Drinking on Credit with God
7. Yesterday's Saints (Tomorrow's Sinners)

Available now as a digital download. 

As Lou Mercer says in the newly discovered session notes: "We weren't making a record that night. We were just trying to make it through the night. Turns out they were the same damn thing."

Some treasures need three decades of darkness before they're ready for light. The Lost Demos Vol. 1 is finally ready to be found.

"The most beautiful sounds in the world are the ones that almost got away." - Barstool Benny

Press Contact: Sarah Wilkes, Press Your Luck Records & Tapes

The Lost Demos Vol. 1

The jukebox is busted, the neon flickers like a bad memory, and the only thing keeping the walls from caving in is the low, greasy growl of a Hammond B3. That’s where **Barstool Benny** comes in—half legend, half cautionary tale, and all soul.  

B3 Melodies is a collection of smoke-stained, whiskey-soaked organ instrumentals straight from the heart of the dive bar circuit. Each track drips with late-night regrets, bottom-shelf bourbon, and the kind of blues that don’t make the charts but sure as hell stick to your ribs. These ain't polished tunes—they're frayed at the edges, raw and reckless, played like Benny’s still trying to outrun something.  

No fame. No fortune. Just a Hammond, a hangover, and some hellacious grooves.  

Drop a dollar in the jar, take a sip, and let the music stumble its way into your bloodstream.

One More for the Road

Last Call Lament

Neon Flicker Blues

Whiskey & Wurlitzers

Jukebox Funeral

Drenched in the glow of flickering bar signs and the haze of last-call confessions, Neon and Nicotine is a five-track dive into the soul of the late-night drifter. Barstool Benny delivers smoky organ grooves, bluesy back-alley swagger, and the kind of melodies that linger like the burn of cheap whiskey. From jazz-soaked musings to soulful midnight rambles, this EP is a love letter to the lost hours and the stories told between sips.

Pull up a stool, light one up, and let the music take you somewhere between regret and revelation.

Flickering Neon Blues 01

No guitars. No distractions. Just Benny's fingers finding the gospel in the gutter, playing 11 hymns for the heartbroken between cigarette drags.

Organ: Barstool Benny
Bass Guitar: Sonny "The Slug" Harris
Drums: Carl "Boom-Boom" Granger

Produced by Lou Mercer.

©1987 Press Your Luck Records, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cheap Beer Lullaby

The Alley Knows My Name

"Benny Plays the Hits" ain't your grandma’s greatest hits record- it’s a barstool confessional, a jukebox jam session where the songs are half-remembered but the feeling cuts deep. Benny pounds the Hammond like it owes him money, pouring sweat, smoke, and stories into every note. These ain't chart-toppers, but they’ve been howled into the night by drunks and dreamers for decades.  

The grooves are loose, the whiskey’s neat, and the past-due bar tab ain’t getting paid anytime soon. No frills, no pretense- just Benny, his B3, with Frankie and Jimmy holding down the rhythm while the room spins slow.  

No guitars. No gimmicks. Just the sound of a man playing like there’s nothing left to lose.  

Drums: Frankie "Thumper" Morello  
Bass: Jimmy "Two Hands" DelVecchio  
Organ: Benny

Produced by Lou Mercer.
Special thanks to Bert "Cat" Thompson. What would we do without you?

©1992, 2025 Press Your Luck Records, Inc. All rights reserved.

05 On The Rocks

06 Nickel and Dimed To Death

01 Whiskey Before Breakfast

"Benny Plays the Hits" ain't your grandma’s greatest hits record- it’s a barstool confessional, a jukebox jam session where the songs are half-remembered but the feeling cuts deep. Benny pounds the Hammond like it owes him money, pouring sweat, smoke, and stories into every note. These ain't chart-toppers, but they’ve been howled into the night by drunks and dreamers for decades.  

The grooves are loose, the whiskey’s neat, and the past-due bar tab ain’t getting paid anytime soon. No frills, no pretense- just Benny, his B3, with Frankie and Jimmy holding down the rhythm while the room spins slow.  

No guitars (maybe one or a few). No gimmicks. Just the sound of a man playing like there’s nothing left to lose.  

Drums: Frankie "Thumper" Morello  
Bass: Jimmy "Two Hands" DelVecchio  
Organ: Benny
Guitar: Lou Mercer

Produced by Lou Mercer.
Special thanks to Cat Thompson. What would we do without you?

©1992, 2025 Press Your Luck Records, Inc. All rights reserved.

12 Memory Lane

"Benny Plays the Hits" ain't your grandma’s greatest hits record- it’s a barstool confessional, a jukebox jam session where the songs are half-remembered but the feeling cuts deep. Benny pounds the Hammond like it owes him money, pouring sweat, smoke, and stories into every note. These ain't chart-toppers, but they’ve been howled into the night by drunks and dreamers for decades.  

The grooves are loose, the whiskey’s neat, and the past-due bar tab ain’t getting paid anytime soon. No frills, no pretense- just Benny, his B3, with Frankie and Jimmy holding down the rhythm while the room spins slow.  

No guitars (maybe one). No gimmicks. Just the sound of a man playing like there’s nothing left to lose.  

Drums: Frankie "Thumper" Morello  
Bass: Jimmy "Two Hands" DelVecchio  
Organ: Benny
Guitar: Lou Mercer

Produced by Lou Mercer.
Special thanks to Bert "Cat" Thompson. What would we do without you?

©1992, 2025 Press Your Luck Records, Inc. All rights reserved.

09 Lipstick On The Collar Blues

02 Neon Through The Blinds

"Benny Plays the Hits" ain't your grandma’s greatest hits record- it’s a barstool confessional, a jukebox jam session where the songs are half-remembered but the feeling cuts deep. Benny pounds the Hammond like it owes him money, pouring sweat, smoke, and stories into every note. These ain't chart-toppers, but they’ve been howled into the night by drunks and dreamers for decades.  

The grooves are loose, the whiskey’s neat, and the past-due bar tab ain’t getting paid anytime soon. No frills, no pretense- just Benny, his B3, with Frankie and Jimmy holding down the rhythm while the room spins slow.  

Real instruments. No gimmicks. Just the sound of a man playing like there’s nothing left to lose.  

Bass: Jimmy "Two Hands" DelVecchio  
Organ: Benny
Guitar: Lou Mercer

Produced by Lou Mercer.
Special thanks to Bert "Cat" Thompson. What would we do without you?

©1992, 2025 Press Your Luck Records, Inc. All rights reserved.

04 The Parking Lot Waltz

03 Last Call For Dignity

The New Indie Release from Barstool Benny

Dusted off, re-recorded, and dripping with that late-night, backroom soul—The Days Run Wild crawls out of another shoebox full of forgotten demos, polished just enough to keep the grit where it belongs. Every track bleeds straight from the heart of The Barstool Benny Trio, with Benny grinding out smoky organ grooves, Thumper Morello and Boom-Boom Granger holding down the pocket on drums like a man with a grudge, Jimmy “Two Hands” on bass, and special guest Mr. Lou Mercer handling guitar duties with the kind of effortless cool that only comes from knowing better days and worse nights.

Remember, Folks: The notes that matter most are the ones you play between last call and sunrise. Everything else is just filling time.

Produced by Lou Mercer.



©2025 Press Your Luck Records, Inc. All rights reserved.

05 Benny's Blues

04 Tenpin Alley

10 Blue Lou

01 The Days Run Wild

06 Mikey's Shootin' Dice Again

03 Aperol On Ice

02 Odie The Alley Cat

07 Third Wife's The Harm

09 Summertime At The Track

08 Bottomshelf Redemption

Benny and Thumper take "Yesterdays" down to half-speed—like watching regret in slow motion. Their notes hang like old suits in abandoned closets while Lou Mercer's production wraps it all in amber, preserving what everyone else is trying to forget.


Produced by Lou Mercer.
©2025 Press Your Luck Records, Inc. All rights reserved.

Yesterdays

Rainbirds finds the Barstool Benny Jazz Trio at their smokiest-four moody tracks full of swagger, sorrow, and late-night charm. Every drink has a story. Every regret has a groove.

Personnel:
Drums: Thumper Morello
Bass: Jimmy Two Hands
Organ: Barstool Benny

Recorded live after hours at The Yellow Canary.
Produced by: Lou Mercer.
Engineered by: Wires Morales.

© 2025 Press Your Luck Records & Tapes

03 The Goonch

01 Drinking Again

02 Lucielle

04 I'll Never Go Drinking Again

2. The Devil's Training Wheels

4. Lester The Nightfly

5. Three-Legged Dog Blues

1. Pawnshop Communion

6. Drinking on Credit with God

3. Mama Lou's Medicine

7. Yesterday's Saints (Tomorrow's Sinners)

Music for midnight philosophers and 3AM saints. 

Slide a few bucks into the tip jar and take home some organ grooves that'll make your speakers sweat- cheaper than therapy, lasts longer than whiskey.

Barstool Benny - Jazz & Booze

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