Ben Mink

Benjamin (Ben) Mink (born January 22, 1951) is a Canadian songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, best known as a long-time collaborator with Canadian singer k.d. lang.

Born of Polish parents, Mink was raised in Toronto, Ontario. He got his start performing with the rock/country group Mary-Lou Horner, which became the house band at "The Rockpile" bar and nightclub. They opened for Led Zeppelin and Muddy Waters, along with being a backup band for Chuck Berry.

He plays several string instruments, notably the guitar, violin and the mandolin, and is an award-winning music producer.

Mink is best known as a long-time collaborator with Canadian singer k.d. lang, whom he met at Expo '85 while doing a gig with CANO. Mink has performed on, along with co-writing and producing several of her albums, which often combine voice with string arrangements. Mink subsequently performed as violinist, guitarist, and mandolinist with lang's band, the Reclines. A performance for the Grammy nominated album Ingenue, was recorded as part of the MTV Unplugged series at the Ed Sullivan Theater, New York City, December 16, 1992 (aired in 1993).

Before that, Mink was a member of the bands Stringband, Murray McLauchlan's Silver Tractors, FM and The Blazing Zulus.

Mink was invited to play electric violin on the Rush song "Losing It" from the band's 1982 album Signals and contributed strings to the song "Faithless" from the 2007 album Snakes & Arrows. He also co-wrote, produced and performed guitar on My Favourite Headache (2000), a solo project of Rush's lead singer Geddy Lee.

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