Born in England, Dyer-Bennet's family moved to British Columbia in 1919, so if he wrote "Black....." in 1916, it was written in England before he moved to the U. S. in 1923. The family moved to Berkeley, California in 1923, but much subsequent movement involved. RD-B spent high school years in Santa Barbara and Germany. He enrolled in Univ. California, Berkeley, 1n 1932, studying English and seriously involved in sports. By the end of his junior year, he was well into serious voice study with Gertrude Wheeler Beckman. She suggested he study with the Swedish minstrel and art song specialist Sven Scholander. This was followed by a brief stay in Wales. Engagements at private concerts followed, but the break came in 1941, when a Harvard professor underwrote his first recording. Later that year, he received his first engagement, at Le Ruban Bleu, a small sophisticated club in New York. Work followed at the Village Vanguard and 'the rest is---', with concerts at Town Hall and Carnegie. He began serious guitar study with Ray de la Torre in NY in 1944; A tour on the Sol Horok circuit followed in 1945. He toured annually until 1970 but limited his yearly concerts so that he could devote more time to study, his translations, and sports.

He translated and performed Schön Müllerin by Schubert, and later in life devoted full time to the epic "Odyssey."

Nowhere in the biographical note does Bonnie Dyer-Bennet, in notes prepared for Smithsonian-Folkways, mention any contacts with "unsophisticated, musically illiterate folks of Kentucky and North Carolina." This 'may' have happened during his period on the concert stage.

Listening to his recordings (available from Smithsonian Folkways), one is always aware that he was a professionally trained singer of art songs, and he did it very well. He was especially good on songs by Thomas Moore, poems by Yeats ("Down by the Sally Gardens") and English and Scottish folk and music hall songs ("Vicar of Bray").
As Lighter emphasized, he rewrote both words and music to suit his voice and inclinations.