Ben Folds rocking the keys

I picked up the November issue of Keyboard Magazine the other day. I don’t consider myself a keyboardist by any stretch of the imagination, but Ben Folds was on the cover talking about songwriting, so I sort of felt myself morally obligated.

His recent album, Way to Normal, sort of threw me a loop when I got it a couple of weeks ago. Anyone expecting a straight line progression from Rockin’ the Suburbs and Songs for Silverman is in for a bit of a surprise to say the least. For one thing, Mr. Folds is intentionally scaling back his flashy technique, choosing instead to use more primal, cathartic and driving rhythms to get his message across. For another, the tunes that used to be textbook examples of contemplative composition now seem to have transmogrified into something completely different.

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www.myspace.com/timhalperin

Well, I got a nice surprise on MySpace the other day. I thought I recognized the name Tim Halperin in my friend requests, so I clicked through only to realize 1) I must’ve been thinking of somebody else, and 2) this kid makes some pretty decent tunes!

He’s a piano playing songwriter dude, sort of like Ben Folds, who’s a personal god to me, so I’m curious to see where this guy’s going to go from here. He’s presently unsigned, but I think it’s just a matter of time.

I only wish I could work in a Toronto angle to the story so I could feature him on blogTO & spread the word further, but alas, he is a Texan, so that’d be a bit of a stretch. Someone give this boy some money and send him on tour.