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A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons Audiobook
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Publisher Description
From genre-defying icon Ben Folds comes a memoir reflecting on art, life and music that is as nuanced, witty and relatable as his cult classic songs.
Ben Folds is an internationally celebrated musician, singer-songwriter and former frontman of the alternative rock band, Ben Folds Five, beloved for songs such as ‘Brick’, ‘You Don’t Know Me’, ‘Rockin’ the Suburbs’ and ‘The Luckiest’.
In A Dream About Lightning Bugs, Folds looks back at his life so far in a charming, funny and wise chronicle of his artistic coming of age, infused with the wry observations of a natural storyteller. He opens up about finding his voice as a musician, becoming a rock anti-hero, and hauling a baby grand piano on and off stage for every performance.
From growing up in working class North Carolina amid the race and class tensions that shaped his early songwriting, to painful life lessons he learned the hard way, he also ruminates on music in the digital age, the absurdity of life on the road, and the challenges of sustaining a multi-decade, multi-faceted career in the music business.
A Dream About Lightning Bugs embodies what Folds has been singing about for years: Smile like you’ve got nothing to prove because it hurts to grow up, and life flies by in seconds.
Advanced Praise:
‘I’m gonna learn to read for this’ Josh Groban
‘I read this in one glorious, giant gulp. As a fan and a musician, this is truly a gift ... moments for me to geek out, moments to laugh and cry and many fragments of pure, hard won wisdom and honesty’ Jamie Cullum
‘A Dream About Lightning Bugs reads like its author: intelligent, curious, unapologetically punk, and funny as hell. This intimate look at his life from his own unique perspective is a rare and unforgettable gift that does what Ben Folds always has done for me as an artist and a friend: encourages me to be more myself, with a lot of swear words’ Sara Bareilles
‘A masterfully written memoir, and so much more. Folds imbues this literary work with keen insight and humor to create an elegant and moving tribute to art and life itself.’ Daniel Levitin, author of #1 New York Times bestseller This Is Your Brain on Music and The Organized Mind
‘Besides being super talented, and an incredibly poignant and multifaceted musician, Ben Folds is a fantastic author. I couldn’t put this book down – and not just because I taped it to my hand. Ben takes us into his mind and into his process from the very beginnings of his childhood to where he is today – one of the greatest musicians and writers that has ever graced the art.’ Bob Saget
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"‘Besides being super talented, and an incredibly poignant and multifaceted musician, Ben Folds is a fantastic author. I couldn’t put this book down – and not just because I taped it to my hand. Ben takes us into his mind and into his process from the very beginnings of his childhood to where he is today – one of the greatest musicians and writers that has ever graced the art.’"
— Bob Saget
Quotes
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‘I’m gonna learn to read for this’
— Josh Groban -
'I read this in one glorious, giant gulp. As a fan of your work and as a musician, this is truly a gift ... moments for me to geek out, moments to laugh and cry and many fragments of pure, hard won wisdom and honesty’
— Jamie Cullum -
‘A Dream About Lightning Bugs reads like its author: intelligent, curious, unapologetically punk, and funny as hell. This intimate look at his life from his own unique perspective is a rare and unforgettable gift that does what Ben Folds always has done for me as an artist and a friend: encourages me to be more myself, with a lot of swear words’
— Sara Bareilles -
‘A masterfully written memoir, and so much more. Folds imbues this literary work with keen insight and humor to create an elegant and moving tribute to art and life itself.’
— Daniel Levitin, author of #1 New York Times bestseller This Is Your Brain on Music and The Organized Mind -
“An insightful, touching, and often hilarious look back at [Folds’s] life and career, told with wit and good old-fashioned Southern warmth—like Truman Capote, but with more F-bombs.”
— People -
“Engaging and solid . . . Rock memoirs have a distancing effect, but Ben Folds is as relatable as ever.”
— Washington Post -
"[Folds’s] journey, beginning with a dream he had at age three, is one of the most rewarding any musician has brought us along for in quite some time.”
— Paste magazine -
“A memoir of sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll that’s long on wry humor and short on—well, sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll. . . . A pleasure for fans and encouragement for novices to tune in.”
— Kirkus Reviews
Awards
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New York Times bestseller
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A Booklist Editors’ Choice of Best Audiobooks of 2019
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An NPR Best Book of the Year
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A Paste Magazine Pick of Best Books of 2019
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About Ben Folds
Ben Folds is an American musician who has created an enormous body of genre-bending music that includes pop albums with Ben Folds Five, multiple solo albums, and collaborative records with artists from Sara Bareilles and Regina Spektor to William Shatner. His last album was a blend of pop songs and his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra soared to #1 on both the Billboard classical and classical crossover charts. Folds was also a judge for five seasons on NBC’s acclaimed acapella show The Sing-Off, and in 2017 he was named as the first ever artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. An avid photographer, Folds is a member of the prestigious Sony Artisans of Imagery, has worked as a guest photo editor for National Geographic, and was recently featured in a documentary by the Kennedy Center for his photographic works. Folds is also an outspoken champion for arts education and music therapy funding in our nation’s public schools, and has served for more than five years as an active member of the distinguished Artist Committee of Americans for the Arts. A Dream About Lightning Bugs is his first book.