1. Benjamin Lev Kweller was born on June 16,1981 and is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.
27 Facts About Ben Kweller
1. 2.
In 1982, his family relocated to Emory, Texas, where his father, Howard Ben Kweller, became the town's first doctor.
3.
Howard sang and played guitar, while Ben Kweller played the drums.
4.
Ben Kweller has mentioned in interviews that meeting Lofgren greatly helped his exposure to music.
5.
When Ben Kweller turned eight, someone showed him how to play "Heart and Soul" on the piano, and the youngster immediately began to create his own songs using the same chords.
6.
In 1993, Ben Kweller became friends with a local musician, drummer John Kent, and formed the band Radish with bassist Ryan Green.
7.
Ben Kweller sent a copy of Dizzy to guitarist Nils Lofgren, who grew up with Ben Kweller's father in Maryland.
8.
At age 19, Ben Kweller moved with his girlfriend, Liz Smith, to New York, where he began his solo career.
9.
Ben Kweller played solo acoustic shows and self-released four EPs, comprising some of the unreleased Radish Discount Fireworx recordings and other songs recorded in his apartment on a laptop computer.
10.
Jeff Tweedy, Juliana Hatfield and Guster noticed Ben Kweller and took him on tour with them.
11.
In 2001, Ben Kweller became ATO Records' first worldwide signing and released a 5-track EP entitled EP Phone Home.
12.
Late in 2003, Ben Kweller provided lead vocals on the song "I Hope Tomorrow is Like Today" from Guster's album Keep It Together.
13.
Unlike the previous studio albums, Ben Kweller played all the instruments on this record himself.
14.
Ben Kweller continued to tour to support his self-titled album, and expanded his band into a five piece, which grew to include Dan Horne on bass, Mark Stepro on drums, Jay Barclay on guitar and organ and Jason Roberts on lead guitar.
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Ben Kweller continued to play guitar and piano on this tour, but it gave him the opportunity to just sing on certain songs.
16.
Ben Kweller has described the new album as being more country in style than his previous releases.
17.
In earlier interviews, Ben Kweller had stated that it would be released as early as March or April 2011.
18.
The delay in release is a result of Ben Kweller's parting ways with his former record label, ATO Records.
19.
Ben Kweller's album was released a few days earlier than expected on iTunes on February 7,2012.
20.
On June 23,2018, Ben Kweller announced via his Instagram page that he would be releasing a new album soon.
21.
On January 22,2019, Ben Kweller announced his return to music after he and his family had a near-death experience after carbon monoxide poisoning during a vacation in New Mexico.
22.
Ben Kweller played the 2003 Austin City Limits Music Festival at the conclusion of his tour, where he played Sha Sha in its entirety.
23.
Ben Kweller returned to the Austin City Limits in 2004 when he performed on the Bank of America stage.
24.
In spring of 2007, Ben Kweller co-headlined with his label-mates Gomez.
25.
Ben Kweller continued through the summer with his own string of headlining dates which eventually ended at ACL fest.
26.
Immediately following his performance at ACL, Ben Kweller began recording his fourth full-length LP, a country record titled Changing Horses in Austin, Texas on September 21,2007.
27.
Ben Kweller married his longtime love Liz in 2003.