By Eric George Tauber
SAN DIEGO — “It’s not the roar that makes the lion, it’s the pride.”
Singer-songwriter Ben Scheuer has a one-man musical autobiography now playing at the Old Globe. Through story and song, Ben takes us on a deeply personal musical journey chronicling his life.
His first ballad is a charming tale about a homemade cookie tin banjo with rubber band strings and an old red necktie for a strap. Playing this, father and son would jam together. As a child, it was his pride and joy. “Cookie tin banjo,” -played on a Froggy Bottom K-14 built specifically for The Lion- had the bright bounce of bluegrass with the dexterity of Spanish guitar and the lilt of the Beatles.
Ben’s father used to sing to his sons “Weather the storm,” a folk song about facing life’s difficulties. “It’s not how long the rain falls nor how hard the wind blows … It’s the courage we show facing things we don’t know. It’s the way that we weather the storm.” It’s a beautiful song of hope, admitting life’s difficulties and encouraging fortitude.
Richard Scheuer was a complicated man prone to violent outbursts. A brilliant mathematician, the C- his son brought home was “unacceptable” and Ben’s passion for music was deemed a “distraction.” That was when Ben stopped speaking to his father.
His father’s sudden demise left Ben with some big shoes to fill … that his adolescent feet simply couldn’t. Growling and screaming on an electric Les Paul Goldtop Deluxe provided a healthy –if noisy- outlet for his boiling anger playing “Saint Rick.”
He gets bluesy over a “difficult” woman named Julia, coming on a little strong in “I’ll bet loving you will be easy.” It could’ve earned him a black eye, but she went for it. It’s Julia who gets him to pick up his dad’s old guitar and this is where his healing process begins.
His journey through bone cancer is heartbreaking, vividly graphic and painfully detailed. Yet it’s in this valley of the shadow of death that his relationships are healed. Ben was terribly frightened … and yet he weathered the storm.
The writer of Proverbs repeatedly exhorts his son, “Pay attention to my wisdom. Incline your ear to my words.” Ben’s dad put his words of wisdom in song and gave his son the gift of music. Ben gives us the gift of his story.
The Lion is a window into the soul of Ben Scheuer, an intimate journey through the joys, pains, sorrows and fears of his life. And as we gaze into this window, we realize that the glass has also become a mirror.
*
Tauber is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. He may be contacted via eric.tauber@sdjewishworld.com.