These songs are some of the most beautifully crafted jumbles of stanzas, lines, notes and rhythms I've ever heard.

I was flipping through the entertainment section of the paper one Friday last February, and noticed the words 'been compared to Ben Folds Five.' Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I will get excited just knowing the air I breathe may have once flowed through the lungs of one of the members of that now defunct group. The band the article was talking about the The Gabe Dixon Band, and they were playing the next night at a club here at the student union.

So I had to go. The next day and $3 later, I saw them play.

While they weren't really anything like Ben Folds Five (except guitar-less - some critic was grasping too hard for something that really wasn't there when he compared them) they really blew my mind.

Gabe Dixon himself played instruments (piano, guitar, drums) on Paul McCartney's latest album. Any hype that collaboration may have caused is well deserved: The boy is a musical craftsman.

The other members of the band, Winston Harrison on bass, Jano Rix on drums, and Chandler Webber on sax, are masters of their instruments and of improv music altogether.

And now their first full-length label-produced record is out — On a Rolling Ball. Most of the tracks are from their independently produced record, More Than It Would Seem. But these tracks don't lose anything in newer production. I can't stop listening to this record.

The sound is rich and clear; the instruments full of vitality. Gabe Dixon's smokey vocals provide a good top-layer to the backdrop of piano, bass, drums and sax. Just another jazz quartet? Not by a long shot.

While the instruments may bear similance to an early Harry Connick, Jr. record at first, you'll find yourself unable to resist the hooks and melodies these traditional instruments create in un-traditional ways.

From the first track, "More than it Would Seem," you will be hooked. They kick it up a notch for "Everything's OK," and slow it down some for the masterpiece, "Just a Dream."

These songs are some of the most beautifully crafted jumbles of stanzas, lines, notes and rhythms I've ever heard.

If you're yearning for something with a little substance, but not too overwhelming, give the Gabe Dixon Band a listen. If you want un-intelligble lyrics awash in a sea of bitchin' guitar riffs, listen to the Refused. (Do I smell another review?)

As for the show that night, I was a little skeptical when they brought in a digital piano for the performance. But Gabe redeemed himself in the execution of the songs that night, including a dead-on cover of Elton John's "Tiny Dancer."

Some may say I have a thing for piano players, but I just think they're the best at singing us a song.

After all, they're the piano men.