When Jeff was 12 years old he broke his own arm with a hammer, just to see what it would feel like. He loves the smell of gasoline and the taste of blood. He can recite the dialogue from JAWS to you from memory at any given moment. He made THE HUSTLER in 17 days in a studio apartment in the French Quarter of New Orleans. “Recording in N' Awleans," he attests, "influenced everything about this record”. The disc, Klein's third, features contributions from Ani DiFranco, Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner and Afghan Whigs/Twilight Singers auteur Greg Dulli, who co-produced it with Mike Napolitano (Blind Melon, Joseph Arthur) in an atmosphere suited to Jeff's darkly sexy, sometimes disturbingly intimate , songs. “It's such a rich, diverse culture,” Jeff recalls of his New Orleans sojourn. “Between music and food and religion, it makes the hair on your arms stand up when you're walking down the street. You feel the electricity in the air. It just makes you feel more creative. And there's so much decadence: It's so frightening and so amazing and jaw dropping at the same time. And it's the only city in the whole world where a guy can get laid for playing the tuba.”

Jeff Klein's second album was the starkly beautiful " Everybody Loves a Winner " . This won an enthusiastic reception in both the US and UK press for its unflinching, finely drawn depictions of lust and love and the mistakes those impulses can engender. " The Hustler " follows with an assortment of bourbon soaked set-pieces that will thrust him into full view. “ I grew up on indie rock and classic soul and I don't want to be the guy with the acoustic guitar in coffee houses” he insists.

What ties these individual set-pieces together is Jeff's voice – both his whiskey-and-nicotine rasp and the stylistic voice of his songwriting. ''I try to keep my songs as honest as possible. It does get me into trouble sometimes. I always change the names to protect the innocent, but there are some people who blatantly know that some songs are about them and their experiences. I know my family hears my songs and wonders what the hell is going on. I don't always make the smartest choices in the world, but I have no regrets. I enjoy it. Everybody needs to make their mistakes.”

In his spare time Jeff Klein can also be found as a sometimes collaborator and/or touring member of The Twilight Singers, The Honorary Title, Statistics, and more..