PARTIAL REVIEW OF BEN HARPER AT TERMINAL 5: AWESOME

First off: the reason why this is a partial review, and the reason why I barely posted anything in September, is because I was on the "disabled list." I'm out of the hospital, feeling better, but don't have the energy for a full show in a general admission venue. But I figured seeing some of the show was better than none.

Of course, that turned out to be true. Ben Harper, back with Relentless7, was rocking tonight. Ben and the 7 are better than ever.  The last time I saw them, it still felt like a new project.  Now, with two albums and a lot of touring behind them, they're a really tight unit.

They opened with "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" which was excellent, and then kicked into "Glory and Consequence" which went into a cover of Pearl Jam's "Jeremy." Much of the show (at least the part that I saw) was material from Ben's albums with The Innocent Criminals, which is a change from the last tour, where he played mostly new material, and only played a few older songs. But R7 did great takes on the older stuff like "Faded" and "Diamonds On The Inside."  But their own material was great too - "Don't Give Up On Me Now" and "Rock and Roll Is Free" from his excellent new album Give Til It's Gone, and "Number With No Name" from White Lies For Dark Times are even better live than on the record.  I left the show during a long version of "Lay There And Hate Me."  Apparently, after that, Charlie Sexton sat in with the band for a few songs, but if anyone was at the show and wants to tell me what I missed, please hit me in the comments section.  I wish I could have stayed for the whole thing.

As much as I'd love to see Ben back with The Innocent Criminals, I've got to say that he and R7 have turned into a really great band.  I hope Ben works with both bands in the future (and of course I'd love to see him do more with his other group, Fistful Of Mercy).

I'd love to have been able to have gotten better pictures from the show, but my requests to the publicist for a photo pass went unanswered- even though I paid for tickets, and it would have cost nothing.  But you can see the fine work of No Expiration's official photographer (aka my wife): check out her photos from recent concert by  Tom Morello, Steve Earle and The Drive-By Truckers.

BEN HARPER - GIVE TILL IT'S GONE

It's no secret to No Expiration readers that I'm a huge Ben Harper fan.   I've been looking forward to this album for a while - it was originally supposed to come out in the fall, but I guess it got pushed back because of Ben's Fistful Of Mercy project with Dhani Harrison and Joseph Arthur. 

The new album, Give Till It's Gone, is billed as a "solo" album - I'm not sure why, since Relentless7 (his backing band on 2009's White Lies For Dark Times) is on the album. But whatever, it's a great album, and I think it is an improvement on White Lies (which was one of my favorite albums of that year). 

The album will probably be seen as "the divorce album," due to recent events in Ben's life.  I'll leave that alone, I don't need to know what every song was actually based on, and I respect the man's privacy.  

My favorite moments on the album are actually pretty positive. The first single, "Rock and Roll Is Free" being one of them. I would think that by now, all rock and roll songs that are about rock and roll are kind of cliche - it seems like Lenny Kravitz territory (with all due respect). I've read interviews where Ben said that he was inspired to write the song after seeing Neil Young perform "Rockin' In The Free World." He wanted to write a song with the words "rock" and "free." It's not his most profound moment, but it's a lot of fun, and it makes me feel energized.  It reminds me of a Matthew Sweet song (he's another artist that I dig). 

The other moment I can't get enough of is "Spilling Faith" which goes right into the instrumental jam "Get There From Here." Both songs were co-written with Ringo Starr, who plays drums on them. It's a bit psychedelic and Beatles-esque. (Ben and R7 were Ringo's backing band on his promo tour last year - I wish he'd use them on a full tour instead of another All-Starr Band). Apparently, Ringo asked Ben to do a positive song (we know Ringo loves to say "peace and love!").  I'd love to hear King's X cover this one, the song made me think of them for some reason. 

There are much darker moments, on the album, like "Don't Give Up On Me Now," "I Will Not Be Broken" and "Pray That Our Love Sees The Dawn" (featuring Jackson Browne on backing vocals, the album was recorded at his studio). 

The album actually has a lot of range, and it makes me wonder how Ben decides what songs go where (is a song a Relentless7 song, or a Fistful of Mercy song or something he'll hold for The Innocent Criminals?).  "Waiting On A Sign," for instance, would sound great done by The Innocent Criminals. 

Well, Ben Harper is at the peak of his powers, and it feels like he's been there for damn, over a decade, and he's gonna be staying there for the foreseeable future. I am looking forward to seeing this tour (he's playing Terminal 5 in NY in the fall, yes I have my tickets) and what he'll do next. 

BEN HARPER + JOSEPH ARTHUR + DHANI HARRISON = FISTFUL OF MERCY

Wow, another new Ben Harper project.  Ben, Joseph Arthur and Dhani Harrison have a band called Fistful Of Mercy.  I hadn't heard anything about this, and all of the sudden, this video pops up in my email box. I know that Ben and his other other band, Relentless7 have a new album, Give 'Til It's Gone, due out this fall. (And I wish Ringo Starr would release a live album from one of the shows he did with Ben and the 7 a few months back!) The song, "Fistful of Mercy," is pretty great. so I'm looking forwad to hearing this.  But I wonder, when will Ben work with The Innocent Criminals again?

Fistful of Mercy from Fistful of Mercy on Vimeo.

BEN HARPER AND R7 HAVE A NEW ALBUM!

Well, this is surprising news.  Just as Ben Harper and Relentless 7 have released their great live CD/DVD Live from the Montreal International Jazz Festival, Ben has announced that their next studio album, Give 'Til It's Gone, is coming out in the fall. Their recent "boss," Ringo Starr (they were his backing band on his recent promo tour - I wish he was using them this summer instead of his umpteenth "All-Starr Band") guest on the album, as does Jackson Browne, according to Rolling Stone.

I am kind of surprised: I thought after one album and tour he'd reunite with his long time backing band The Innocent Criminals. But I guess he's really digging R7, and Ben is the type of artist, like Springsteen or "Young Neil," who follows his artistic impulses and right now I guess he's feeling the guitar rock. I'm sure he'll get back with the Criminals at some point.

BEST OF THE '00s: BEN HARPER

Longtime readers of No Expiration know that I am a HUGE fan of Ben Harper. If you're new, you know that I veer towards more "vintage" artists. So let me throw down right here and now and say that Ben is one of the greatest artists of all time, in my opinion. A lot of today's artists who are a "big deal" wouldn't be as big of a deal if they surfaced in the '60s or '70s.  I'll say here that Ben would have been even bigger had he come up in those eras.

I have to admit, I've always been rooting for him. When I read about people seeing Bruce Springsteen at the Stone Pony or Bob Marley on his first U.S. tour, I wondered if I'd ever get to see a talent of that caliber before the general public got wise. In 1994, I was an intern at CMJ magazine, and I found an interesting-looking promo CD. I just liked the way it looked! It was four songs from Ben's classic debut, Welcome To The Cruel World, and it had "Don't Take That Attitude To Your Grave" and "Mama's Got A Girlfriend Now" and a two others. I was sold.  I bought the full CD and then went to see Ben perform at Maxwell's in Hoboken, New Jersey, opening for Alejandro Escovedo. I was blown away by Ben's set (Alejandro was great too). I became evangelical, buying extra copies of his CD and giving it to anyone who I thought had good taste in music. But that was the '90s, lets talk about the '00s.

Ben kicked off the decade with some great covers: The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever" from the I Am Sam soundtrack, and The Temptations' "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" and Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" -- both backed by the legendary Funk Brothers -- for the documentary film Standing In The Shadows Of Motown. What other contemporary artist would have the stones to even attempt those songs? He paid the highest tribute to the originals by being respectful while bringing his own persona to the song.

But Ben is no covers artist. In 2003 he returned with a classic album of his own, Diamonds On The Inside which featured one of his best songs, "With My Own Two Songs," a song that I believe people will be singing in a hundred years from now and beyond. The album was a culmination of everything he'd done at that point: reggae, blues, soul, rock and roll and even metal (if you don't believe me, go 15 seconds into "So High So Low").

The following year, he released the amazing collaboration with gospel legends The Blind Boys Of Alabma, There Will Be A Light, maybe my favorite or second favorite album of the decade. Such an amazing collaboration, I'm not a good enough writer to put this one into words. I'll say this: I've seen a lot of concerts in my life. I've seen a lot of Ben Harper concerts in my life. But Ben with the Blind Boys at the Apollo Theater in Harlem is one of the greatest performances I have ever seen.

I would imagine that that album must have been pretty difficult to follow up. The next album was 2006's double album Both Sides Of The Gun, which was sort of half a solo album and half with his incredible backing band, The Innocent Criminals, who I should have mentioned already. This album was even more diverse than Diamonds, and as usual, showed no compromise to the commercial music market (and that said, most of his music is totally accessible, as long as you don't require being pandered to). There are so many great songs to talk about here, but I'll go with "Better Way," another one that will be sung in an century, long after we are gone.

I'll pause here for a second to give props to his record label. I don't know if he has a good relationship with them, but it shocks me that a record label has stuck with a non-hit-single artist like Ben for so long. Maybe they hold him to a different standard than the rest of their roster, and they should.

In 2007, he returned with his second best album of the decade, Lifeline. This one was recorded with The Innocent Criminals right after a tour, and would be their last album for a while. It was a great one to say goodbye with.

This year, he made the really daring move of changing bands - on the Lifeline tour he got big enough to sell out two nights in a row at Radio City Music Hall. His label and management must have been thinking "finally!" So what does he do? Puts The Innocent Criminals on hiatus and gets together with a harder rocking combo, Relentless7 and starts playing bars. He knows what he's doing. I love both bands -- and I'm sure he does also. I'm sure he'll play with the Criminals in the future, just as Bruce doesn't always work with E Street and Neil Young doesn't always rock with Crazy Horse.

This post is getting a bit long, and I haven't even gone into his collaborations with Jack Johnson (who he helped to put on the map), Willie Nelson, Toots Hibbert, Stephen Marley, Bonnie Raitt, and Eddie Vedder. So I'll wrap it up here -- if you are looking to get into Ben, comment here and I'll get back to you, or just post a "beginner's guide to Ben Harper."


More Best Of The '00s: Bob Dylan
Willie Nelson
Aimee Mann
Jeff Tweedy
David Johansen
Levon Helm
The Beatles
Jim James
U2
Steve Earle

BEST OF '09: BEN HARPER AND RELENTLESS7

Ben Harper & Relentless7's White Lies For Dark Times is one of my favorite albums of 2009 for sure. I was eagerly looking forward to it, and a bit nervous about it at the same time. I really love Ben's usual backing band, The Innocent Criminals, and hoped this would be as good. Truthfully, I don't know if I like this band as much, but this is a great album - it takes Ben in more punk and psychadelic rock directions. The band was great live: I caught one of their concerts at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, as well as a WFUV studio performance and another one at the SIRIUSXM studios. I imagine that Ben will, in the future, work with both of his bands depending on what type of music his songs call for.

Other Best of '09 albums: Bob Dylan's Together Through Life , The Cocktail Slippers' Saint Valentine's Day Massacre , Rancid's Let The Dominoes Fall, N.A.S.A.'s Spirit Of Apollo , Levon Helm's Electric Dirt , Buddy & Julie Miller's Written In Chalk