Ben Harper

Considered one of the major artists of the international folk/rock scene, Californian Ben Harper (Benjamin of his first name), is actually much more than that. In fact the young artist - 37 years old to date - plays a music certainly marked by these two influences (that of Taj Mahal among others but also Bob Dylan and... Bob Marley , two artists often taken live) but has managed to forge a hybrid style, or rather not to fix himself on any of those he practices. Apparently to the great damn of some people, sometimes blaming him. Folk, rock but also reggae so, gospel, blues, pop or world music are part of the wide range of styles between which this artist with multiple audiences has been juggling for more than twenty years now (first concert at 12 years). Ben Harper spent his teens in instruments at the Folk Music Center, a store held by his grandparents containing all sorts of instruments from around the world today becoming a museum and visible in Better way's clip. He will take advantage of it as much to initiate the art of lutery as to practice and test the guitars he repaired before this second activity finally finally took over. Then one easily understands his taste for La and the guitars, leaning lined with a certain talent.
The career of the Métis artist (in both the figurative and figurative sense, the artist with black American, Lithuanian and Cherokee origins) will really take off only in the 1990s, in 1992 to be more precise since he will then shoot with Taj Mahal and Brownie Mc Ghee two of his mentors. That same year, with Tom Freund, he recorded Pleasure And Pain his first vinyl. First jet. A rather rare thing especially for such a result and demonstrating the spontaneity and sincerity of Ben Harper . He returned in 1994 with what many consider his first real album Welcome To The Cruel World . Very folk, this album will stand out from the following due to the near absence of percussion and its highly stripped appearance where most of the music is made by the only Ben Harper , most often accompanied by his Weissenborn (guitar slide, playing thus lying down on his knees), an instrument which he particularly loves, with which he shows himself particularly skillful and which he will find regularly on album as well as on stage. Between these first two efforts Ben Harper made a remarkable passage in France at the 15th Transmusicales in Rennes in December 1993. This concert, his first outside the United States where he still remains in confidentiality, will be a true revelation to many of the spectators who attended the Californian show and they will soon make him understand. The artist will also remember and also keep a certain affection for the hexagonal public who will always welcome him very well. With these positive echoes and praiseworthy reviews Ben Harper will later shoot with artists like, PJ Harvey , The Fugees , Neneh Cherry or MC Solaar but also play with John Lee Hooker , Ray Charles or Gil Scott-Heron to name but a few.
Everything accelerates and Ben Harper will then follow with a new album in 1995: Fight for your mind, which remains in line with his predecessor, committed, thoughtful and borrowed sweetness and spirituality. Then come The Will To Live and Burn To Shine in 1997 and 1999: two much more rock albums where electric guitar incursions are becoming more and more frequent although still firmly rooted in a folk universe (which recall songs like Two hands of a prayer, Jah work, Suzie blue ...). These two albums are recorded with his band The Innocent Criminals. Here we find the committed side of the artist and his acolytes in this heavy name of meaning as they themselves explain: "He is someone who is catalogued as a criminal, but who is innocent. In general, racism is very prevalent in the United States. Many blacks are considered criminals, while in fact they are innocent. I'm standing around the corner and I'm stopped because of this. I didn't do anything, but I'm black in a white neighborhood. What am I doing here? I'm a criminal. Our name comes from there." Following these albums comes a first live double album (electric and acoustic) on the enigmatic title: the Live From Mars in 2001. No one knows where it was recorded and the group has never been clear on the subject. This did not stop this remarkable album from finding its audience and continuing to conquer another, ever larger one.
2003 will be the year of the BHIC consecration with the album Diamonds On The Inside and its famous opening title With my own two hands that it was difficult not to hear on the radio at the time and where Ben Harper lets himself go to his penchants for the reggae already seen on the acoustics of Live From Mars or live for the lucky ones. The texts are as usual sometimes positive, sometimes committed, sometimes darker. This album is certainly his biggest public hit and the singles listed will testify.
But in a good way it's with a gospel album recorded with the legendary Blind Boys Of Alabama that Ben Harper will come back in 2004. Here again success is at the rendezvous and There Will Be A Light manages to even rank first in sales in France for a while. Never seen it for that kind of music. This album will also be followed by a tour of which the concert at the Apollo Theatre in New York, a highly symbolic place of American black culture, will be recorded and published on DVD (Live at the Apollo Theatre – 2005). Ben Harper really got into the big boys' yard and it's starting to see each other and know each other. In 2006, Ben Harper and his Innocent Criminals returned to us with the double studio album Both Sides Of The Gun , apparently more "unnoticed" than their previous one, probably due to the absence of titles being totally radio tubes in power, halfway between sounds closer to the first albums and a more electric side, definitively fully assumed and controlled by Sieur Harper. However, the current European tour, often played with closed windows, attests to the continuing success of Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, whose nice trick they will be able to play next time. Who knows with this atypical character walking with envy and inspiration?