The year is 1990. It's Friday night in the small east Texas town of Greenville. Boys are cruising Wesley Street in their S10 pickup trucks, searching for action. They pull into Sonic, and as they roll down the window to order cheese tater-tots the voice of a DJ escapes,"That was the latest hit from Travis Tritt and you're listening to 93.5 KIKT FM!"                                                         The Sonic swarms with kids in cowboy hats. The cool kids are wearing Justin Lace-R's,   competing to see who can lace them the fastest.

Over at the roller rink a mile away, skaters float to the pattering "November Rain" and sway to "The Dance", by Garth Brooks. Up front, youngsters chomp rectangular pizzas and swill Crystal Pepsi. There's a middle-school girl with hair-sprayed bangs and tight red Wrangler jeans on, tucked in the corner making out with a boy named Ben Kweller. Tomorrow Ben will walk down the Sabine River with his pal Wade, fishing for bass and smoking Camel Wides near the dilapidated moonshine still. In town, country music is inescapable and follows Ben wherever he goes, but when he comes home, he hears The Hollies' harmonies from his dad's turntable. And in six months, Ben will be skating that same rink as the chords of a new sound are played through the PA, a song called "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

The schizophrenia of music that hit his ears at that early age created the rainbow that critics have written about since his New York arrival in '99. He's been called everything from balladeer to punk rocker, anti-folker to indie-popper. His ability to weave together opposites that coexist happily on the same album is something few can do.

On February 3 rd , 2009, the whole deal comes full circle with the release of a captivating album called Changing Horses (ATO) . With Horses , Kweller returns to his small-town roots as he takes one of his own back-roads, country music, and makes it the main road. It's a collection of stories with a hymnal quality. The genre seems so natural that you think he's finally settled down, at least for one album. Rootsy songs from his past, like "Family Tree", "Lizzy", "In Other Words" or "Living Life", make Changing Horses a natural progression in this gifted songwriter's career. His inviting vocals still guide the songs, creating the compelling intimacy fans are familiar with. "People are asking me, 'why did you wake up and decide to make a country album?' To them I say, 'I didn't. It's been in me the whole time, I just never put it on tape.' Friends heard me talkin' about Changing Horses for years. They know how much country music means to me - when Alan Jackson comes on the radio, somethin' happens inside. Brings me back to the trees, back to pushin' cars out of the mud. Reminds me of my hometown."

The album opens with "Gypsy Rose", a haunting blues about a man with nothing in life except the prostitute he sees every week, and closes to the gospel of "Homeward Bound", about a good-souled junkie living under a bridge in Colorado. "'Homeward Bound' is one of my faves," says Kweller. "It was written in the '60s by Willy Mason's mom and dad but no one ever recorded it. Willy played it for me one day and I fell in love, knew I had to cut it." Other songs of loss and loneliness poke their heads out like "Old Hat" and "Ballad of Wendy Baker". "I must've written 'Wendy' when I was 16. It's about my friend who was killed in a car crash back in high school. We were all devastated. I was eating Chinese food a few days later and my fortune cookie said, "No one loves 'til it's gone". It hit me, so I went right home and wrote her that song."

Changing Horses ' dark beauty may begin with a prostitute and end with a junky, but there are several up-beat, down-home tunes that balance out the mood. In particular, the rambunctious road anthems "Fight," about a trucker burning up the highway, and "Sawdust Man," which ends with CB radio chatter. "I love trucker culture," Kweller says. "I guess it goes hand-in-hand with spending most of your life on the road. Come in... "

Unlike his previous albums, Kweller produced Changing Horses himself. "I've been lucky. I've worked with some of the greatest producers and learned from them all. For Horses it was time to take the wheel." Clearly, a lot of time was spent on the arrangements, which come alive thanks to his stellar rhythm section, Chris Morrissey (bass) and Mark Stepro (drums) . The jaw-dropping talents of Kitt Kitterman, (Pedal Steel and Dobro) are debuted here and play off Ben like a vocal duet. The 11-day recording session took place in Austin, TX at Public Hi-Fi, an all-analogue studio founded by Spoon drummer Jim Eno. Public Hi-Fi's gear list wasn't the only reason he recorded in Austin. "I've gone through a lot of changes in the past few years. Re-prioritized, found the important things in life. After our son Dorian was born, [my wife] Lizzy and I started to crave open spaces. Wanted to simplify. We needed nature. I was growing tired of writing songs in my apartment. I used to write outside all the time. I missed that. As a new father I started thinking about my parents and my roots, which were in Texas.       

In April of 2008, after nearly nine years in New York, the Kwellers packed up and headed south to their new home in Austin. "I'll always love New York and the albums I made there. They have an urgency to 'em that I really like, but of all the albums I've made, this was the easiest. It was so nice to sit around and make music with those guys. We're brothers." Those brothers include Ben's long-time engineer Steve Mazur who turned the knobs at the old Neve desk.   

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For more information, please contact Big Hassle Media at 212-619-1360

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BEN KWELLER TO RELEASE NEW RECORD,

CHANGING HORSES , FEBRUARY 3, 2009

NORTH AMERICAN TOUR CONFIRMED FOR THE NEW YEAR

ATO Records is excited to announce the release of Ben Kweller's new record on February 3, 2009. The album is his fourth full-length and is called Changing Horses . It was produced by Kweller and recorded mostly in Austin, TX, where he and his family recently re-located. The title is meaningful as it represents a sea change for the 27-year-old Texan-bred musician. Beginning with his first record, Sha Sha , released in 2002, Kweller's albums have always been stylistically restless, moving from indie rock to ballads to anti-folk to melodic chug rock, often from song to song. Changing Horses , on the other hand, is of one mind -- a full-blown, straight up country affair, brimming with immaculate pedal steel, twang and multi-part harmonies. It features his touring band -- Chris Morrissey on bass and vocals, and Mark Stepro on drums and vocals -- as well as the brilliant Kitt Kitterman on pedal steel. Like all of Kweller's work, the new album is filled with unforgettable melodies and deeply soulful lyrics that could only come from someone as sensitive to the human spirit as he is.

To make the record, Kweller dug down to his deepest roots. "I grew up bass-fishing, playing in creeks, and shooting BB guns," Kweller says. "Country music was the soundtrack to my life. It's still a big part of who I am. When Garth Brooks or Alan Jackson come on the radio, somethin' happens inside. Brings me back to the trees, back to pushin' cars out of the mud. Reminds me of my hometown."

For Kweller, releasing a country album is the realization of a long-held goal. "I've been working on Horses for years." he says. "I wrote the first song for it when I was 16. Over time, I've collected these songs that fit together and wanted to release them together. I didn't want to try and fit them on my other albums one or two at a time."

On producing the record himself, Kweller says, "I've learned so much from all the great producers I've worked with, from Ethan Johns to Gil Norton, and I just felt it was time for me to go in there and make the album the way I knew I could," he says. "I wanted it to feel really pure and direct. I wanted each instrument to sound exactly like that instrument, with very little treatment or alteration, to give it that natural, warm beauty that I love."

Kweller and his band, who just finished a tour of America, the UK and Europe, have confirmed a North American tour for 2009 to support the release of Changing Horses . The confirmed tour dates are below. A west coast leg of the tour as well more international dates will be announced soon.

February

16 - Omaha, NE - Slowdown

17 - Minneapolis, MN - Varsity Theatre

18 - Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall

21 - Cleveland, OH - Case Western Reserve U

22 - Toronto, ONT - The Mod Club Theatre

24 - Somerville, MA - Somerville Theatre

25 - New York, NY - Town Hall

26 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club

27 - Philadelphia, PA - TLA

28 - Pittsburgh, PA - Diesel

March

01 - Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle

03 - Lousiville, KY - Headliners Music Hall

04 - Nashville, TN - Mercy Lounge

05 - Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club

06 - Birmingham, AL - Workplay Theater

TOUR DATES:

See Tour Dates from Pollstar.com