Contemporary artist – Ben Harper

Ben Harper performed four years ago at the Bealle Street Music Festival.  I had listened to several of Ben’s songs before and was highly impressed by the way he mixed blues, reggae, and gospel with rock and roll.  Of course his vocals are what pulls everything together; the instrumentation of his band changes from pure percussion, to acoustic guitar, and to everything in between.  The night he played in Memphis was completely unexpected and exciting.

The night began three hours earlier with Jack Johnson.  Ben introduced Jack to the man who eventually produced Johnson’s first album.  The two had done considerable work as a duo previously so I settled in for what would surely be another one of those performances.

At the end of Johnson’s performance, the roadies cleared the stage and set up a steel guitar center stage.  Everyone who stayed after Johnson’s performance had just been lulled at sunset, and they were in for an awakening.  Harper appeared on the stage to cheers and applause, sat down at the steel guitar, and proceeded to rock harder than I had ever heard him rock before.  The next three hours were filled, not with lullabies and acoustic guitar, but with intense, up-tempo, screaming steel guitar.  I enjoyed Ben Harper before, and after that performance I freaking loved Ben Harper.  Just when I thought I had pinned his favorite style in his albums, he completely blew my mind in the live concert.

To me, Ben Harper is the stereotypical singer/songwriter:  rhythmical melodies, thought provoking lyrics, and emotional.  He did, however, break the mold in this live performance.  The melodies were sill rhythmical, the lyrics were all the same, but the emotions he expressed were more angry and energetic than depressed. 

Many of the songs he played that night were from his new (at the time) album Diamonds on the Inside, and when i returned home, I promptly went out and bought the album.  Yes, I bought the album.  It was a rare moment in my musical history.  To my surprise the album was not as similar to the live performance as I had hoped. 

While there are some songs that rock fairly hard, the majority of the songs on the album point back to my previously held conclusions about Harper.  Many of the tracks were slow spiritual tunes, and others were like a lullaby.  I still put that in that disk while I’m driving on occasion, but the majority of my favorite songs are on my iTunes account.