Sunday, January 2, 2011

FISTFUL OF MERCY - AS I CALL YOU DOWN - TIE FOR #11

Another of my favorite albums of 2010 that barely missed my top 10 is Fistful Of Mercy's debut As I Call You Down. Fistful Or Mercy is a new band that includes Ben Harper, Joseph Arthur and Dhani Harrison.

No Expiration readers know that I'm a huge fan of Ben's, I'm less familiar with Arthur and Harrison (who leads a band called thenewno2).

I liked the album as soon as I heard it. But seeing them perform live made me appreciate them more. I had the good fortune to film them in the SiriusXM studios (see the video here), and a few weeks later, I saw them perform at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. That was when I realized that this is a great band, and not just a side project.  The songs that I initially favored from the album, "Father's Son," "Fistful Of Mercy," "Restore Me" and "Things Go 'Round" were even better.  But the album's closer, which closed the show as well, "With Whom You Belong." The song alone could keep these guys together.  It's hard to imagine any of these guys playing the song on their own, and it's hard to imagine that they wouldn't want to play it again.  It was that good live.  They actually unplugged their guitars, and played the song from the front of the stage - in other words, that song was performed without any amplification. It was really powerful and it was in that moment that I knew that these guys will definitely play together again in the future (that said, I'm looking forward to Ben's new album with Relentless7 which comes out this year, and I really look forward to him getting back together with The Innocent Criminals at some point in the future).

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