July 22 street date (CD) / September 30 (LP). "Bloodline Maintenance" is a fearless and immensely soulful work largely inspired by the loss of a longtime friend and the lingering influence of a mercurial and charismatic father. Along with guitar and bass, Ben Harper also played the drums, including an eclectic assortment of percussions. The deliberately open spaces and accented beats influenced in large part by the exploratory rhythms of the hip-hop he has loved since his teens. The result is less a direct influence than the applying of hip-hop's inventiveness to longstanding paradigms of soul, blues and jazz, spinning it all forward into a reconfiguration of a new black Americana. "If this is my "Mule Variations", then hallelujah", Harper says, referencing the groundbreaking Tom Waits record. "Bloodline Maintenance" is both a political and personally revealing work. It is soul music, but never a stylistic tribute to some bygone era. The sound and words are essential and undeniably timely.
September 30 (LP) / July 22 (CD). "Bloodline Maintenance" is a fearless and immensely soulful work largely inspired by the loss of a longtime friend and the lingering influence of a mercurial and charismatic father. Along with guitar and bass, Ben Harper also played the drums, including an eclectic assortment of percussions. The deliberately open spaces and accented beats influenced in large part by the exploratory rhythms of the hip-hop he has loved since his teens. The result is less a direct influence than the applying of hip-hop's inventiveness to longstanding paradigms of soul, blues and jazz, spinning it all forward into a reconfiguration of a new black Americana. "If this is my "Mule Variations", then hallelujah", Harper says, referencing the groundbreaking Tom Waits record. "Bloodline Maintenance" is both a political and personally revealing work. It is soul music, but never a stylistic tribute to some bygone era. The sound and words are essential and undeniably timely.
June 2 street date. How Ben Harper describes his new album: "Wide Open Light" is a family of songs I've written. I've selected them with the care one might put into a personal photo album. To that effect, I'd call it a sonic family photo album, each track a close relative to the next. The story behind this record is simple. I have been writing songs now for over 30 years. It's what I long to do, love to do, and at times feel I need to do, and hope to continue doing until the ink runs dry and the notes fade. But for now, "Wide Open Light". Deliberately minimalist, the songs themselves do as much of the heavy lifting as the production (produced by myself, and my longtime collaborators Danny Kalb and Jason Mozersky)". Featured guests on the album include Jack Johnson, Shelby Lynne, and Piers Faccini.
June 2 street date. How Ben Harper describes his new album: "Wide Open Light" is a family of songs I've written. I've selected them with the care one might put into a personal photo album. To that effect, I'd call it a sonic family photo album, each track a close relative to the next. The story behind this record is simple. I have been writing songs now for over 30 years. It's what I long to do, love to do, and at times feel I need to do, and hope to continue doing until the ink runs dry and the notes fade. But for now, "Wide Open Light". Deliberately minimalist, the songs themselves do as much of the heavy lifting as the production (produced by myself, and my longtime collaborators Danny Kalb and Jason Mozersky)". Featured guests on the album include Jack Johnson, Shelby Lynne, and Piers Faccini.
March 30 street date. GRAMMY-Award winning, multiplatinum-selling artists BEN HARPER and CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE will collaborate once again for their new album No Mercy in This Land, due out March 30, 2018. No Mercy in This Land is the first of new music from the pair since the 2013 release of their collaborative album Get Up!, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Blues Albums Chart and won a GRAMMY Award in 2014 for “Best Blues Album.” A musical expression of the kinship between the two, the album recounts both Ben and Charlie’s personal stories and adds to the sonic history of American struggle and survival. “Charlie Musselwhite is that very rare and hallowed place where blues past, present and future collide,” says Ben about his collaborator and friend. “He transforms notes into emotions that feel both hauntingly familiar and brand new, as if hearing them for the first time every time. He is a living legend whose harmonica playing should be beamed into outer space to search for other life forms.” // “On stage or in the studio - working with Ben Harper holds the same excitement I experienced working with Chicago blues legends back in the day,” says Charlie. “I think it is safe to say that Ben has reinvented the Blues in a great way: playing modern while preserving the feel. I am honored and privileged to be a participant in this project.”
March 30 street date. GRAMMY-Award winning, multiplatinum-selling artists BEN HARPER and CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE will collaborate once again for their new album No Mercy in This Land, due out March 30, 2018. No Mercy in This Land is the first of new music from the pair since the 2013 release of their collaborative album Get Up!, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Blues Albums Chart and won a GRAMMY Award in 2014 for “Best Blues Album.” A musical expression of the kinship between the two, the album recounts both Ben and Charlie’s personal stories and adds to the sonic history of American struggle and survival. “Charlie Musselwhite is that very rare and hallowed place where blues past, present and future collide,” says Ben about his collaborator and friend. “He transforms notes into emotions that feel both hauntingly familiar and brand new, as if hearing them for the first time every time. He is a living legend whose harmonica playing should be beamed into outer space to search for other life forms.” // “On stage or in the studio - working with Ben Harper holds the same excitement I experienced working with Chicago blues legends back in the day,” says Charlie. “I think it is safe to say that Ben has reinvented the Blues in a great way: playing modern while preserving the feel. I am honored and privileged to be a participant in this project.”
|
Full Catalogue Search 
