First up, I’m having to work on my terminology. Don’t call it an “album” – apparently the cool term for a new multi-song recording is a “record”. Kinda takes you back to the days of the LP, doesn’t it? But that’s not really the point of this post.

Here’s the point: Ben Shive is putting out a record next month. Who is Ben Shive, you ask? Well, he’s the guy that I look up to the most of any pianist/musician of my acquaintance. Ben has extensively toured with and written for Andrew Peterson, which is how I first got to know Ben. He’s an unassuming guy, so much so that it’s darn near impossible to get him to perform any of his own stuff. He’s been hinting about a record for a couple of years now, and when I drove him around a couple of months ago (before an AP concert here in Cedar Rapids) I asked about it, and was excited to hear that he was planning on it coming out this year.

So now the announcement is finally here. Ben Shive’s The Ill-Tempered Klavier (a brilliant musical joke/reference, surely P.D.Q. Bach must have used that somewhere?) is available from rabbitroom.com for pre-order today. It’ll be a digital download for now, though Andrew noted that he might be printing some real disks later in the year. Ben, I’d love to have a real disk, so print some, eh?

My list of must-buy records for this year has grown by one… and then immediately shortened, I guess, since I went and pre-ordered it this morning. I can’t wait.