Big news this afternoon, for TCU grad and tireless singer-songwriter Tim Halperin: he's been tapped to open for Kelly Clarkson during her March 1 charity gig at Verizon Theatre.
As Halperin himself put it, when reached by phone this afternoon: "I'm on cloud nine; I'm pretty freaking stoked."
His name was suggested as an opening act by Dallas-based DJ Kidd Kraddick, who has been a long-time supporter of Halperin's ("He's been a huge advocate for me; I owe a lot of this to him," Halperin says). But as Omaha native Halperin explained, there were other connections, apart from the obvious ties to American Idol.
"The foundation Kelly's promoting [the Opportunity Education Foundation] was started by the Ricketts family, which has a lot of Omaha ties," Halperin says. "They know who I am through American Idol and all that stuff, and I'd like to think my music and resume was part of it too."
Halperin will perform with a full band (guitar, bass, drums, piano and cello) at the Verizon Theatre, pulling from his 2011 debut Rise and Fall, and possibly unveiling some new material.
"It's a nice platform to debut a couple new songs we've been working on," Halperin says. "We've been writing a lot."
He guesses his next album could be out by the fall -- "A couple songs are pretty close to being done, but I'm trying to decide do I want to do 10 tracks, or less than that" -- and in the meantime, he'll perform a handful of one-off shows, like the Clarkson concert, and also showcase his tunes during South by Southwest in Austin next month.
"This whole roller-coaster has major ups and major downs," Halperin says, "but it's continued to grow slowly but surely."
Halperin put together a goofy promo announcing his good news. Please to enjoy.
