Shelbi Bennett of The Midnight Pine
- Photo by Amber Martin

Songwriter / percussionist Alfred Howard has been keeping busy. In between his work with The Heavy Guilt and The Black Sands, he’s been doing a new project, The Midnight Pine.

In the band, Howard teams up with 21-year-old singer Shelbi Bennett to play sad, quiet country-folk tunes. Onstage they’re joined by guitarist Sean Martin, and they recently put out an album, Awake Now, featuring a big cast of collaborators, including Black Sands keyboardist Tim Felten, who recorded the album in his home studio.

Howard and Bennett started the band after a chance meeting at Cow, an Ocean Beach record store where Howard works. Bennett was buying DVDs when she mentioned that she was a singer. Not long afterward, they met at her place to record a demo of the first song on the album, “Stolen Wind.”

“I almost cried; I thought it was so beautiful,” Howard says.

Bennett agrees: “As soon as that song was recorded, it was like, ‘We should probably follow through with this.’” They’ll play at Solace and the Moonlight Lounge in Encinitas on Sunday, Dec. 2, and at Tin Can Ale House on Dec. 19. They’ll celebrate the release of Awake Now at Jett Gallery on Jan. 12.

This isn’t the last we’ve heard from Howard, though: He’s started a soul band with Felten and singer Rebecca Jade. “We’re gonna record an album that sounds like Daptone listened to Radiohead,” he says.

DJs Phil Aye, Alex Villalobos and others will spin techno, house and disco at a Hurricane Sandy fundraiser at Kava Lounge on Friday, Nov. 30. All proceeds go to nonprofit medical clinics in New York and New Jersey through the organization Direct Relief International.

Email peterh@sdcitybeat.com or follow him on Twitter at @peterholslin.