Benji Harris Presents Songwriter Talents

Songwriter and performer of 15 years, Benji Harris returned to the school after graduating in 2003 and shared his songwriting talents with the students.

The first band he formed in eighth grade was “The Southhampton All Stars.” They started the band for the school’s talent show, and from there, they were able to play at private clubs and parties across Texas. 

Five years after graduating in 2008, Harris moved to Nashville to pursue his career. He formed a trio “Scarletta” and their genre mainly was country.

After they split up, Harris began playing guitar and touring with popular country singers like Sam Hunt, Carly Pearce, Jordan Davis and Mickey Guyton.

He’s written over 1,000 songs, has appeared on “The Today Show,” “Good Morning America” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers” where he continued to show off his songwriting and music skills. 

Throughout his presentation, he shared the difficult times he faced as an artist, how to recover from them, and how he continued to pursue his musical dreams.

He performed and demonstrated his original songs while also covering a few during the process. Throughout the performance, he remained positive and upbeat as he demonstrated the different melodies and rhythms.

During the presentation, he described his life and how he started with music, which was with his friends, and eventually, his journey would progress from there as he continued with his music career. 

He would later discuss that the music career wasn’t easy and that he was rejected and turned down a lot of times. For three years, he would put off music because of how damaging the rejection was, but eventually, he came to his senses, picking up his guitar and continuing to pursue his dream. 

He engaged with the audience by asking questions, so he and the audience could collaborate to write a song. He asked questions about how heartbreak would feel or how being hurt feels. He wanted the audience to become more emotional with their responses, and by asking those questions, the audience could respond better and engage more with Harris. 

Even with Harris’ little time, he created a small portion of a song with the audience in just under five minutes. The song’s creation demonstrated Harris’ talent with his gift of songwriting. 

Towards the end of Harris’ presentation, he created a small song with the audience and kept the spirits and dreams of future songwriters and musicians alive. He kept repeating how that criticism should help build you as an artist rather than bring you down. Even though words can hurt, he kept pushing for the audience to keep believing in themselves.