I've always had a special place in my heart for Ben Folds.

It was right around my graduation in '92. I was cruising around town on a Friday evening when an Omaha college station played a song that would forever change the way I thought about music. The song was Underground by Ben Folds Five. A drummer, an upright bass player, and a talented pianist for which the band was named blew my mind with a song that seemed quiet eclectic in it's performance. It was alternative. It was melodic. It was rock. It was fun. Underground was underground.

It was the song your garabe band friends always said they wanted to write. It was being played on the radio. I listened to it and hoped the DJ would tell me everything that was to know about these five Ben Folds.

In reality, Ben Folds Five was actually three. As I learned more about them they seemed like the geeks of alternative rock music. Who goes on tour with a piano and upright bass that isn't from from the Big Band era or a jazz ensemble? Ben Folds! That's who!

Ben eventually went solo and produced his own music. Rockin' The Suburbs had some of the finest music I'd ever heard. By this time what I was realizing about my musical tastes was that I love good harmony music that had a lot of acoustic paino and 'jam band' feel to it. I liked music that I thought I could play. While I am no Ben Folds, I do enjoy listening to his music and picking out the notes to recreate it for myself.

The song that sticks with me lately is Landed. It's like the song was written for me. I suppose as an artist that would be how I'd want my audience to feel. Like the could personally relate to what was being expressed.

We'd hit the bottom
I thought it was my fault
And in a way I guess it was
I'm just now finding out
What it was all about

If you wrote me off
I'd understand it
'Cause I've been on
Some other planet
So come pick me up
I've landed