I’ve been rooting for Ben Kweller for 14 years. In 1997, my dad showed me a New Yorker article featuring Radish, a band Kweller fronted as a teenager. He was just 15 then. Radish’s success didn’t last, but I never forgot the picture from that article. Nor did I forget the feeling, as a 13-year-old learning to play guitar, that my own rock stardom could be right around the corner. I kept checking in on Kweller, enjoying solo albums Sha Sha and On My Way, but was blown away when I saw him perform at the National on November 12, 2008. It was a new Ben Kweller, reborn as an alt-country act, getting ready to release the aptly titled Changing Horses. It was spectacular. “Fight” and “Sawdust Man” became instant favorites that night, and I was filled with satisfaction seeing a musician I’d been rooting for sound so great.