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Some of the best human stories are the hardest to tell – those stories that are acted out inside a person, instead of obviously out in the world.

But the facts of Ben Johnson’s life more than hint at the presence of just such a story. For without some kind of internal movement, how does a self-described “nerd” kid move from wanting to be liked for something other than his musical talent to pursuing a life as a performing singer and songwriter? How does he get from the shelter of his southwestern Missouri farm family to facing down life as a working musician in the Windy City?

The answers to these questions and some you wouldn’t dare to ask can be found in his work, which is at once searching, intimate and subtly powerful. In a review of his first EP, WAIT, Splendid Magazine calls the project’s songs “ambitious, theatrical, labyrinthine...straining the confines of the pop format into which they’ve been forced.” “Every song is like a mini rock opera.” It is “cabaret gone slightly mad” (Indie-Music.com)

A classically trained pianist, immersed in Rachmoninov and Ginastera - Now, with a professional life in theatre...Ben’s new cd, Paperboy, takes broad, sweeping lines and drives them into focus: posing questions without easy answers; locking himself in a room with the listener until one of them emerges bruised, but better for the asking.

Ben released his first EP, WAIT, in July 2005. His second project, Paperboy, will be available in May 2009 at CDBaby.com, eMusic.com and iTunes.