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When Jeff was 12 years old he broke his own arm with a hammer, just to see what it would feel like. He loves the smell of gasoline and the taste of blood. He can recite the dialogue from JAWS to you from memory at any given moment. He made THE HUSTLER in 17 days in a studio apartment in the French Quarter of New Orleans. “Recording in N' Awleans," he attests, "influenced everything about this record”. The disc, Klein’s third, features contributions from Ani DiFranco, Soul Asylum’s Dave Pirner and Afghan Whigs/Twilight Singers auteur Greg Dulli, who co-produced it with Mike Napolitano (Blind Melon, Joseph Arthur) in an atmosphere suited to Jeff’s darkly sexy, sometimes disturbingly intimate , songs. “It’s such a rich, diverse culture,” Jeff recalls of his New Orleans sojourn. “Between music and food and religion, it makes the hair on your arms stand up when you’re walking down the street. You feel the electricity in the air. It just makes you feel more creative. And there’s so much decadence: It’s so frightening and so amazing and jaw dropping at the same time. And it’s the only city in the whole world where a guy can get laid for playing the tuba.”

Jeff Klein’s second album was the starkly beautiful " Everybody Loves a Winner " . This won an enthusiastic reception in both the US and UK press for its unflinching, finely drawn depictions of lust and love and the mistakes those impulses can engender. " The Hustler " follows with an assortment of bourbon soaked set-pieces that will thrust him into full view. “ I grew up on indie rock and classic soul and I don’t want to be the guy with the acoustic guitar in coffee houses” he insists.

What ties these individual set-pieces together is Jeff’s voice – both his whiskey-and-nicotine rasp and the stylistic voice of his songwriting. ''I try to keep my songs as honest as possible. It does get me into trouble sometimes. I always change the names to protect the innocent, but there are some people who blatantly know that some songs are about them and their experiences. I know my family hears my songs and wonders what the hell is going on. I don’t always make the smartest choices in the world, but I have no regrets. I enjoy it. Everybody needs to make their mistakes.”

In his spare time Jeff Klein can also be found as a sometimes collaborator and/or touring member of The Twilight Singers, The Honorary Title, Statistics, and more..

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The Hustler deserves to bring Texan Klein to a wider audience. The Sun - 5 STARS

Jeff Kleins smoky voice has a bruised world-weariness on The Hustler, his excellent third album. The Independent - 5 STARS

"The Hustler is a richly diverse suite as exploratory as its predecessor was stark. Chiseled at the edges, Klein's ugly-pretty voice is reminiscent of Buffalo Tom's Bill Janovitz or an ashes-strewn Paul Westerberg. Ani DiFranco and Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner guest too, soothing Klein's characters through various states of emotional flux. Urban gothic par excellence." - Uncut Magazine - Album Of The Month - August.

"Put You To Sleep" from The Hustler appears on disc 3 of the REM Collection. A compilation of R.E.M's favorite music today.

"The Hustler" is a career peak, the sort of record that mumbles game in your gal's ear and ushers her out the door. (4 Stars) - Austin American Statesman.

"The third release from this Austin-based songwriter, recorded in New Orleans, is positively dripping with decadence. The title track, with its spare arrangement, sets the stage with a cinematic nocturnal romanticism suggesting early Tom Waits or Leonard Cohen. With production from Greg Dulli (Afghan Whigs) and Mike Napolitano (Joseph Arthur), The Hustler is a raw, melodic tapestry from start to finish." - Performing Songwriter.

"As a protege of notorious Greg Dulli, Austin's Jeff Klein is cut from the same crushed-velvet cloth, the disheveled Don Juan who's irresistible and knows it. Given Dulli's production of The Hustler, Klein's third LP, it's not exactly surprising that the album's contents are postmarked from the corner of narcissism and despair." - Austin Chronicle.

"Jeff Klein wants to sex you up--indie-rock style. Between his raspy voice and intimate Southern gothic slow jams, who could resist?" - Dallas Observer

"This is soulful, downbeat heartbreak music, rich in melody and late-night/early morning texture with the grace and nuance of (Wilco�s) �Summerteeth.�" -Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"Dark and Insightful Work" - Amplifier

"Hustler is a beautiful dark gem that walks a knife-edge of vulnerability to the place where need becomes its own strength. This is pop music that seeks numbness yet reveals the pure poetic wreckage of a broken heart as its exposes its wound-and its teeth." - All Music Guide

"The Hustler is a night in the Big Easy with Klein polishing unrequited love songs with a swinging brass section and punctuating vocal lament like "Pity" with raw, electronic beats custom made for Bourbon Street's seediest strip joints." - CMJ

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EVERYBODY LOVES A WINNER PRESS:
Uncut Magazine Album Review �4 STARS
Mojo Album Review -4 STARS
London Times Album Review -4 STARS
All Music Guide Album Review -4 STARS
CMJ New Music Monthly Album Review -4 STARS
Stuff Magazine Album Review - STARS

"Everybody Loves A Winner" is a powerful, often unhappy lullaby that is magnetic from start to finish" - Rolling Stone

"Jeff Klein is making waves with Everybody Loves A Winner" -Billboard

"Klein boasts an aptitude for role-playing, judging from the graceful way he animates the drunks, two-timing brutes and arsonists that populate the ten-song set" No Depression

"Broken hearted genius for anyone who needs more than a dashboard confession on their dusty pathï" - Uncut Magazine, Borderline Review

"Maturity of songwriting, and a kind of stoical grace. Everybody Loves A Winner has both in spades" -Mojo

"The first great album of the year has arrived in record time" - London Times

" [Jeff Klein's Everybody Loves A Winner is one of] The 10 most remarkable things in culture this month" - Esquire

"Affecting Songs" - Q Magazine

"So sweet and gentle to listen to it becomes more harrowing and sadly beautiful with each passing moment" - All Music Guide

"Songs of beat-up beauty and hard-earned wisdom" - Uncut Magazine, Feature

"Hauntingly dark, beautifully frayed songs." - Classic Rock/U.K.

"Kleins heartfelt songs are so damn good, we weren't sure whether to laugh or cry" - Stuff Magazine

"A Mini Masterpiece" - Daily Mirror