Ten years ago, on returning to the US from Australia, Ben Folds purchased a heritage studio in Nashville, primarily as a workshop and creative space. The studio, originally built by Chet Atkins for RCA Victor Records in the 1960s, has seen sessions by Elvis Presley, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison and Dolly Parton. A story about the legendary recording space is featured in the cover story in the May 2013 issue of Mix Magazine, the leading magazine of professional audio and music production, and the cover (shown at left) depicts Ben at the keyboard in what was commonly known as RCA Studio A. (more…)
News
Ben and his studio featured in Mix Magazine
Five Live
Update:Â As expected, it’s out, available for listening online.
Ben did a live album, aptly titled Ben Folds Live, several years ago, comprising live material from his solo shows and teasing fans with the Five/Live similarity. Well, now there will be a Ben Folds Five Live album, gleaned from live performances as the band was touring in support of The Sound of the Life of the Mind.
Tracks and shows: (more…)
“The Sing-Off” returns for 4th season
After initially not renewing the popular a cappella competition show, NBC Television has announced it has ordered a fourth season of The Sing-Off to run during the 2013 holiday season.
The show has announced casting calls this month and next in various places around the country.
Everybody’s curious, of course, as to who the judges will be, and naturally Ben Folds’ name comes up in that discussion. Ben says he hasn’t started negotiating with the show’s producers yet, but he expects that his people will be talking to their people in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!
Ben to work on 24-Hour Company theatre project
A short item in The New York Times (free registration required) mentions that Ben Folds will take part in the next round of The 24-Hour Plays, a theatre project based in New York. Several writers and musicians gather for a 24-hour period to write, rehearse and ultimately perform short 15-minute stage plays and musicals. The format has been licensed around the world and over three hundred such projects have been undertaken since its inception in 1995. The next incarnation takes off Sunday, April 28 and culminates with a performance at New York’s Gramercy Theatre on Monday, April 29 at 8 PM. Tickets go on sale next month; other artists are yet to be announced. More information is available from The 24-Hour Plays site.
(April 19) Here’s an update with more details:
A team of nearly 100 stars from Broadway, film, television, and music, will cast, write, compose, direct, rehearse, tech, and perform four original musicals – all in the obscenely short time between an evening meet-and-greet on Sunday, April 28 and show time on Monday, April 29 at 8pm. The 24 Hour Company is teaming with the Exchange, an off-Broadway theater company, to create the fifth-ever 24 Hour Musicals. The event benefits the Exchange’s summer retreat, The Orchard Project, which kick-starts innovative new theatrical work from around the world.
The musicals will be written, cast, rehearsed, and performed at The Gramercy Theatre over the course of a single day, featuring an all-star line up of Broadway performers, stars from TV and film, great composers and writers, directors and – to top it all off – choreographers and musical directors. Participants will include singer-songwriter Ben Folds, Maulik Pancholy (30 Rock), Zosia Mamet (Girls), Josh Lawson (House of Lies), Deirdre Lovejoy (The Wire), Nikki M. James (TONY Award, Book of Mormon), Anthony Rapp (Rent, Without You), cabaret sensation Bridget Everett, Kristoffer Diaz (Chad Diety), Lisa Peterson (Obie Award, An Iliad), Jonathan Marc Sherman (Clive, Things We Want), Alicia Witt (Friday Night Lights, Law & Order), John Cariani (Law & Order, Fiddler on the Roof), Brian Crawley (Violet), Joe Iconis (The Black Suits), and Danny Goldstein (Godspell).
Tickets for the gala are between $115 and $500 and all include admission to the show and open bar at the Gramercy Theatre. To buy tickets, visit http://www.exchangenyc.org/24hm.
Number Ten (with a bullet)
The long-awaited return of Ben Folds Five in recorded form, The Sound of the Life of the Mind, made a successful launch this week, scoring a number-10 placement on the Billboard 200 chart, listing the top-selling albums of the week in physical and virtual units. TSOLOTM moved roughly 30,000 units, and the tenth-place ranking was the highest for any Ben Folds with-or-without Five album ever, even during the Brick days. Looks like all the advance buzz from the “Dam VPs” paid off!
