(Poughkeepsie, NY) The Bardavon is pleased to present Ben Folds with special guest Kate Miller-Heidke at UPAC, Friday, October 9 at 8pm.

Benjamin Scott "Ben" Folds is an American singer-songwriter and the former front man of the band Ben Folds Five. In 1995, Ben Folds Five released their self-titled debut album (songs included "Philosophy" and "Underground"). The debut was followed by Whatever and Ever Amen in 1997, and the odds-and-ends compilation Naked Baby Photos was released in early 1998. Whatever spawned many hits, such as "Brick", "Song for the Dumped", and "Battle of Who Could Care Less". In 1999, the band released their final album, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner, which included the hit, "Army". Folds has described his former band as "punk rock for sissies", and his oddball lyrics often contain nuances of depression, melancholy, self-conflict, and humorous sarcasm.

As of 2008, Folds has released six solo LPs, including an experimental side project called Fear of Pop, which was released while Ben Folds Five was still together. Folds's first solo release after the breakup of the band was Rockin' the Suburbs in 2001, on which he played nearly all the instruments, notably guitar, an instrument seldom used during the Ben Folds Five days. A year later, he released Ben Folds Live, a collection of live solo recordings. In late 2003, two solo EPs, Speed Graphic and Sunny 16, were released, and a third, titled Super D, was released in mid-2004. Songs for Silverman was released in the United States in 2005. This album includes the track "Late", a tribute to the late singer-songwriter Elliott Smith, and also features backup vocals from "Weird Al" Yankovic on "Time" (Folds had played piano for Yankovic's song "Why Does This Always Happen to Me?" on his Poodle Hat album. Yankovic also directed and appeared in Folds's video for the "Rockin' the Suburbs" single).

Folds contributed to William Shatner's album, Has Been, as producer, arranger, musician, and backup vocalist. Shatner also sang vocals on Folds's Fear of Pop song, "In Love", which was performed live on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in 1999.

The soundtrack for the 2006 animated film Hoodwinked! featured "Red is Blue", a ballad underlying a montage at the height of the sadness of Red, the main character. In May 2006, Folds contributed three original songs to the soundtrack of Over the Hedge, a DreamWorks production, as well as a cover of The Clash song "Lost in the Supermarket", and a remix of "Rockin' The Suburbs" with some new lyrics written to complement the script of the film, to which Shatner contributed a spoken rant. Songs for the movie are "Heist", which became the main song for the movie, and "Family of Me", a short track which introduces the movie.

In 2006, Folds released Supersunnyspeedgraphic, the LP, a compilation of songs that were originally released on the EPs Sunny 16, Speed Graphic, and Super D. Folds' most recent studio album, entitled Way To Normal was released in September 2008. It became Folds' highest-charting album ever in the US, debuting at #11 on the Billboard 200.
In April 2009, Folds released an album that consisted of commissioned a cappella arrangements of his music from some of the country's best college vocal troupes, Ben Folds Presents University A Cappella.

Tickets for the Friday, October 9, 8pm performance of Ben Folds with special guest Kate Miller-Heidke at UPAC are available at the UPAC Box Office, (845) 339-6088, 601 Broadway in Kingston or at the Bardavon Box Office, (845) 473-2072, 35 Market Street in Poughkeepsie and through Ticketmaster, (800) 745-3000 or www.ticketmaster.com. Seats are $40 (Adults) $35 (Bardavon Members). For further information, please visit: www.bardavon.org or www.upac.org.
Interviews: Print interview requests to Ken Weinstein, Big Hassle Media, (212) 619-1360, weinstein@bighassle.com and Radio interview requests to Sarah Joyce, Sony BMG/Epic, (310) 449-2242, sarah.joyce@sonybmg.com.