Press + 2007 BUY BEN WEAVER'S LATEST RELEASE "Paper Sky" + For Immediate Release                                                                        February 12, 2007 BEN WEAVER PREPS PAPER SKY HAUNTING ALBUM SET FOR RELEASE MAY 1 "Country-rooted Americana full of weary determination and aphoristic clarity." Jon Pareles, New York Times “Not the kind of thing to play on a sunny Sunday morning, but it may be the best thing for a spooky Saturday night. Weaver pulls it off... out on the edge.” Bill Flanagan, CBS Sunday Morning Ben Weaver is 26 and Paper Sky is his fifth album, set for release on May 1st 2007. The restless, prolific songwriter has been praised as “riveting” (No Depression) and “a startling talent” (Time Out London) that “tells amazing stories” (Utne Reader) in his evocative songs populated by birds, phone booths, lovers, and plastic bags stuck in trees. Paper Sky will be released via Weaver’s own Fugawee Bird Records, which the songwriter runs out of a Casket Company warehouse in Minneapolis. On Paper Sky, Weaver sets off to explore “urban and industrial themes that I hadn’t touched before.” With the aid of producer Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Califone, etc.), Weaver employs crinkly synthesizer textures and other mutilated sounds in the service of his haunting, hushed melodies. Surrounding the release, Weaver will be touring extensively throughout Europe and North America. + "...country-rooted Americana full of weary determination and aphoristic clarity, somewhere between the Band and Tom Waits." Jon Pareles, New York Times “…musical postcards that recall a rural Tom Waits, or Greg Brown in his dark, bluesy moments. He’s like that spooky old guy who lives in a trailer but tells amazing stories.” Kieth Goetzman, Utne Reader "Big Ben Weaver is 24, has a beard and a dog and favours the woods of Northern Minnesota. For once, the work clothes tell a story. He's a startling new talent..." Ross Fortune, Time Out London "...strange, skin-prickling tales picked up from the Moebius strip of a lost highway he's been compelled to travel on.... like a hillbilly Leonard Cohen." Sylvie Simmons, MOJO “Ben Weaver is the most exciting young songwriter I’ve come across, an American original whose voice and guitar are matched only by the power of his words. His songs are an incredible, haunting gift of music.” Author Larry Brown (1951-2004) "...his raw, art-damaged vocal screeds are riveting, invigorating, illuminating." Jim Musser, No Depression “…the quintessential backwoods antihero, maintaining his private, stripped-down songwriting style, while leaving the cabin door ajar for anybody with a curious ear.” Matt Parris, The Weekly Dig "Weaver's brand of youthful rebellion comes filtered through the mad-staring eyes of a corn-chewing old-timer." Henry Day, Q "Weaver's voice - which makes Lee Marvin sound like Aled Jones - lends biblical portent to the most mundane detail. A one-man Brothers Grimm with no happy endings. Enjoy." ****UNCUT “He has a gift for startling images and melodies that stick in your mind after a single listen.” J. Poet, Phoenix New Times “Although he seems burdened with a world-weariness unbefitting a 24-year-old, it’s exactly that incongruity of youth and melancholic meditation that makes his new album, “Stories Under Nails, so engrossing." Travis Smith, Boston Metro