Ben Kweller made his name in the world of indie-pop, but we should have figured the country would come out of him at some point.

He is, after all, from Texas. He grew up hearing both Hanks -- Jr. and Sr. And he doesn't make any secret of admiring alt-country hero Jeff Tweedy.

So, the title of Kweller's fourth album, "Changing Horses," pretty much speaks for itself, as the singer-songwriter ups the quotient of steel guitars and twang over a set of 10 songs as comfy as an old pair of boots.

While it's more Jayhawks than Alan Jackson, Kweller actually found himself with a video in rotation on Country Music Television (CMT), and the 27-year-old Jewish cowboy says that if Nashville cats were to come calling, he might answer the bell.

How has the response been to the new record?

Man, it's been really good. I've been pleasantly surprised. I've been planning on "Changing Horses" for years and came up with the album title and everything back in 2004 when I was recording 'On My Way.' I had both of those ideas, and just kept writing songs for 'Changing Horses' and put out the 'Ben Kweller' record. It's been like a long time coming for me. It's an important record to me, but I never thought it would get as much attention. I didn't even think people would find out about it.

I understand it's gotten the attention of CMT...

Yeah, it's so crazy. We made this great video for 'Fight,' so I just told Big Hassle [his label], 'Let's just send this to CMT and see what happens -- for fun,' and they wrote back and they were like, 'Oh my God, who is this new country singer? We've got to play this video. We're putting it in rotation on CMT Pure and we love it.' Now, all these Nashville people are finding out about me and all of a sudden I'm like this 'new country artist.' So, it's really kind of fun.

What if they asked you to open for Tim McGraw on his tour or something? What would you do?

I'd probably do it, man. Look, if I got offered to open for Tim McGraw or Alan Jackson or something, I would totally do it, man. At this point, I've paid my dues, I guess you could say, in the indie circuit. There's no reason for me to try to prove any cred anymore. Deep down, I love watching those huge country singers perform on TV, so if anything, I would do it so my family back in Texas would know that what I'm doing is legit now.

You probably know this line from the Ryan Adams song. He said he started 'this damn country band because punk rock was too hard to sing.' Is that true?

---

PG audio

Hear more of this interview with Ben Kweller and samples of his music on the Believe Your Ears podcast.

---

Um, when I hard him sing that song back in the day, I was kind of like, 'Oh, really?' I kind of find country music harder to sing than punk rock because there's a lot more stylistic tradition and rules in country singing. What I think he might mean is that maybe Ryan's not a good screamer, and I can relate with that because I'm not a good screamer, and it's hard to scream. People like John Lennon and Kurt Cobain, they had amazing screams. Some people are just born with that voice. Some people aren't. And I wasn't. Maybe Ryan wasn't either. If that's so, then he's right that punk rock is hard to sing. But when it comes to just Ramones-style, I think that's easier than country music.

Were you a big fan of the '90s alt-country, like the Jayhawks and Uncle Tupelo, 'cause I definitely hear that sort of thing on this record?

I didn't really know about Uncle Tupelo in their heyday 'cause I grew up in this small town north of Dallas where all we really knew about was what was on mainstream radio and TV. In the '90s I was listening to Garth Brooks and the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana and [stuff] like that. I didn't know about the Jayhawks until later. I love the Jayhawks -- I mean, 'Blue' is probably one of the best songs ever written. But I somehow found out about Wilco when they came out with 'A.M.,' their first album. So I was on the Wilco trip long before a lot of my friends... and I prefer the country-rootsy Wilco over the more Sonic Youth-noise Wilco, even though I love it, too. I'm a big fan of Jeff Tweedy. He was actually a big supporter of me early on when I first moved to New York. Took me on tour with him.

How do these songs work with the rest of your set?

It's been really cool, the sets are built around 'Changing Horses,' so I've gone back into my catalog and picked out songs that haven't gotten much love on the road -- songs like 'Living Life' and 'Different But the Same,' and 'Hear Me Out.' Some deep cuts from 'On My Way' have been played. We're just kind of picking out the rootsier songs and some of the rockers and we're sort of 'Horse'-ifying them. So it's been really fun.

One of the criticisms of the record, which you probably read, is that you were using secondary country sources. How do you react to that?

Elaborate on that -- secondary country sources.

Rock bands that had adopted country rather than going back to actual country music.

Well, I don't really know what they're talking about. I didn't use any sources to make this record. I just made it. Anything like that is just somebody trying to figure out what I'm up to, but there's no point in trying to figure that stuff out. It doesn't matter. You either like music or you don't. My favorite country music is like Hank Williams Jr., a lot of the '70s stuff, George Jones, Hank Sr., of course, Johnny Cash. People think I'm a big Gram Parsons fan, but I'm not as much. I like Gram. As far as secondary sources, are they saying I listen to bunch of Stones or something?

Like The Band, Dylan ...

Well, only a friend of mine could tell you the things I listen to. How would a journalist reviewing my album know what I listen to? The thing is, I don't even listen to music when I make music. My wife can tell you that. Whenever we have dinner parties, she's like 'We gotta put on music.' I'm like, 'No, I'll get distracted. 'Cause it's really hard for me to talk with music on.' I really don't listen to much music and I certainly don't know these new bands I've been hearing about, like the Fleet Foxes and stuff. I did read one review where they were like, 'Yeah, he's been listening to a ton of Fleet Foxes.' I'm like, 'Who the [expletive] are the Fleet Foxes? I'm raising a 2-year-old son and I write songs. I don't buy records, so I just think it's kind of funny when people think they know about me when people don't know me.

What do think the next record might be like?

The next record's done. I have the title and everything. I'm really not talking about it too much. There's gonna be some dobro and maybe pedal steel on one song, but it's definitely going to be very different from everything else I've done... But what I do can always change. It might be a [expletive] reggae record by the time I'm done with it.

Well, if you do a reggae album, just make sure you go back to the primary sources.

[laughs] Yeah, I'll be sure to go back to the primary. That's like the funniest thing I've heard. It's like 'Ohhh, The Primary Sources.' I would love to know their list of primary sources ... C'mon, man, listen to music and enjoy, or don't enjoy it.