Happy birthday, Ben Harper, born on this day in 1969

Happy birthday, Ben Harper, born on this day in 1969

Ben Harper

Today the American musician Ben Harper, born in Claremont (California), turns 57 years old. He is the son of an African-American with Cherokee roots and a Jewish woman with Lithuanian roots and his music - hardly classifiable - is an eclectic mix of blues, folk, reggae and rock. Both his mother and grandmother played the guitar and his father was a percussionist, which made it easier for him - despite growing up practically in the desert - to have a musical initiation. His first and main influences were Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix.

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At the age of 17 he was given a Weissenborn 'lap steel' guitar and shortly after he was making his first performances singing blues songs imitating the style of Robert Johnson on the Los Angeles circuit. He accepts an invitation from Taj Mahal to go on tour to Hawaii and records the album 'Follow the drinking gourd' (1990) with him. Two years later Harper recorded an album with folk multi-instrumentalist Tom Freund, 'Pleasure and Pain'. Only a couple of thousand copies were released, but Island Records took good notice and signed him to a contract.

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His first album with the label and his solo debut, 'Welcome to the Cruel World' was released in 1994 and although it was not a commercial success, it established him as a folk-blues musician in the California area. Their next work, 'Fight For Your Mind' (1995) contains songs with a wide range of genres, such as the folk of 'Another lonely day', the folk-rock of 'Gold to me', the Black Sabbath-style heavy metal of 'Ground on down', the politically charged reggae of 'Excuse me Mr.' or 'One road to freedom' with gospel influences. It is followed by 'The Will to Live' (1997), the second album with his backing band, Innocent Criminals, who, however, will not receive credits until their next album, 'Burn To Shine', published in 1999 as Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, with very popular songs on university radio stations such as 'Steal my kisses' and 'Suzie blue'.

Ben Harper Both Sides Of The Gun

That same year, Ben meets an unknown Jack Johnson eager to record and introduces him to his producer, J.P. Plunier a demo with twelve Jack songs. A few months later, Johnson releases her debut album, 'Brushfire Fairytales', to which Harper contributes her 'Weissenborn'. They have subsequently collaborated and performed together on more than one occasion. At the beginning of his career, although respected and known in his own country, in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, France, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands he was considered a big star, to the point that the French Rolling Stone magazine declared him 'Artist of the Year' in 2003. That same year 'Diamonds On the Inside' appears, again as Ben Harpera Secas, the first of his albums in which another guitarist participates, appearing on credits, Al Yasha Anderson, who performs the solo on the song 'With my own two hands'. It is his best-selling work to date.

The double 'Both Sides Of the Gun' (2006), in which Harper shows his two musical sides: on one, folk songs with acoustic guitars and strings like 'Morning yearning' and on the other, songs with greater rhythm in which he plays with genres such as hard rock, funk and gospel, is to date his highest-ranked album on the Billboard charts. It reached number 7 in the US and was number 1 in Australia. In 'Lifeline' (2007) he recovered the Innocent Criminals and they recorded the album in just seven days in an analogue studio in Paris, while they were on tour in Europe presenting their previous work.

Ben Harper has also participated in several charity albums or albums in support of causes or people such as the imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi or the Amnesty International campaign to save Darfur (2007) to whose charity album, made up of versions of John Lennon songs, Harper contributed his song 'Beautiful boy'. He is also a member of the No Nukes association, against nuclear energy, and in 2008 he participated in the charity album 'Songs for Tibet'. 

In his 2009 work, 'White Lies for Dark Times', with songs oriented towards blues-rock, he debuted with his new Tejano band, Relentless 7. In August 2010 Harper announced the formation of a new group, Fistful of Mercy, along with Dhani Harrison and Joseph Arthur whose debut album, 'As I Call You Down' was published in October 2010. This does not mean that Ben will not continue his solo career since in May In 2011 he published 'Give Till It's Gone' and in October 2012 a compilation of ballads titled 'By My Side' went on sale. In January 2013, 'Get Up!', recorded with harmonica player Charlie Musselwhite, appeared. This album received a Grammy for 'best blues album'.

In May 2014, 'Childhood Home' appeared, his twelfth album in which he sings and plays accompanied by his mother Ellen Harper. In April 2016 'Call It What It Is' was published, accompanied by The Innocent Criminals, and in March 2018 'No Mercy in This Land', with Charlie Musselwhite. It was followed by 'Winter Is For Lovers' in 2020 and 'Bloodline Maintenance' in 2022. His most recent work was 'Wide Open Light', in June 2023. During the month of November 2026, Ben Harper will head to the southern hemisphere as a special guest of Jack Johnson. Together they will carry out the Surfilmusic Tour, with confirmed stops in large venues in cities such as Brisbane, Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland.

Main article: Ben Harper discography

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