Kweller's Country Tornado Hits Pittsburgh Tonight

Let’s get the obvious part out of the way first — Ben Kweller, the foppish, high-voiced singer-songwriter who’s been banging out garage rock since he was a preteen, just put out his first country record. As in, Texas-boy-showing-his-roots country.

But like the best folks in the genre, Kweller’s always been a storyteller. And though his latest record, Changing Horses, is more rodeo than rock ’n’ roll, the familiar playfulness and hard-to-hate sunshine songs fans have known for years make this Kweller’s best in years.

And yes, he knows it’s country.

“They did the same thing to Bob Dylan when he put out Nashville Skyline, and I even call that his country record. He’d probably say, ‘F**k you man,’ but we gotta label things because we got a language so we can explain things to people,” said Kweller from his home in Austin, Texas. “If you want to call it a country record, so be it, I don’t care. But it is just another Ben Kweller album.”

Good country music’s all about the story, and not surprisingly, Kweller’s Jewish, rock ’n’ roll, boy-wonder-in-the-South tale is among the best.

Now 27, Kweller wrote his first song when he was only 8 and “sounded like a little girl with a Southern accent.” Naturally, this didn’t sit well with the aspiring cowboy rocker.

“I was in fifth grade, and I made a cassette for my friend who was really into AC/DC. My two songs were country piano songs, and I gave him the tape. He came back the next day and said, ‘Man, you sing like a girl,’” said Kweller. “I was so devastated and bummed. So I tried to make my voice sound tougher. I didn’t want to sound like a p***y to my friend.”

His family had moved from California to Texas when he was a year old, making his eventual laid-back California sunshine-child attitude a bit of a surprise. Especially given that his childhood idols were Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson. But adolescence — and the early ’90s — threw him for a loop.

“This little band called Nirvana came out. I was at a skate park when I first heard ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit,’ and I literally pulled over and said, ‘What the f**k is this,’” said Kweller.

For one thing, it was inspiration. By the time he had his bar mitzvah, Kweller was putting out records in the band Radish, going on to play both David Letterman’s and Conan O’Brian’s shows and touring internationally.

And though he might not have sounded tougher on the CBS soundstage, a p***y he was not. Kweller was an indie rock hero in England before he could drive.

Alas, Radish spoiled by 1998 and Kweller was on his own — and better off for it. By 2002 he’d released his first solo record Sha Sha, an album that straddled rootsy indie rock and gut-punching brat-punk. And while Kweller’s country roots took a backseat, they were undeniably still there.

Now with Changing Horses, Kweller’s sixth solo record, Texas is back. But don’t expect a Garth Brooks hillbilly stomper. Horses is filled with gorgeous acoustic ballads (“Ballad of Wendy Baker”), plodding steel-guitar workouts (“On Her Own”) and catchy, sun-baked sing-alongs (well, every song).

“A lot of the songs have been written over the years,” said Kweller. “I’d write one and say, ‘God, I love this song, I want to make an album like this.’ There were certain songs I knew belonged on an album together with their cousins. And it just seemed like the right time to make this album.”

Before he’s even hit 30, Kweller has been making a living in music for more than half of his life. And with his first son Dorian (whose middle name Zev, matched with Kweller’s middle name Lev, translates in Hebrew to “Lion Heart”) and wife Lizzy by his side, Kweller shows no signs of slowing down.

“I’m not good at anything else. I knew that early on — thank God I got lucky and got a record deal when I was so young. But there’s other things I love — science, history, the outdoors, camping and fishing,” said Kweller.

“I always say if I was doin’ something else, I’d be a park ranger or a professional fisherman. But I’d probably get bored of that — I’m an artist first and foremost. Music is my thing.”