Ben Folds is awesome and completely worth a road trip. He's a piano rock guy who's really good and does a variety of groovin' fast songs, great ballads, and some good smarta** songs.
A couple of examples are: (Can't imbed them, sorry.)
This is a kind of bouncy fun song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr_s6...feature=relmfu
Good ballad-type song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F5-U...eature=related
My favorite song of his. Ballad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vPyg...feature=relmfu
I really like this song, and you have to hear the first couple of lines.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjJa7BYCiiA