To Ben Harper, a second disc is his answer
By Chris Nixon
For the San Diego Union-Tribune
August 10, 2006
It's 1978, and a 9-year-old nappy-headed Ben Harper gazes up at reggae legend Bob Marley. Harper is checking out his first concert with his dad, Leonard, and the moment has helped to shape the musician's career to this day.
“(The show) was the first time that the mystery of the needle on the record came to life for me,” said Harper during a recent phone conversation backstage at the “Jay Leno Show.” “It was a huge moment for me. It wasn't like I saw the show and said this is what I'm going to do for the rest of my life. It was a source of musical inspiration and it definitely planted the seed.”
Now, 28 years later, the master slide guitarist and soulful songwriter is touring in support of his current release, “Both Sides of the Gun.” Harper's music balances the hope for social change with the personal struggles of people finding their place in the world, a tightrope that also makes Bob Marley's music timeless. In a strange twist, Harper will share the stage with Marley's son Damian – aka “Jr. Gong” – in a tour that stops at the Embarcadero downtown Sunday.
“Whenever I see Damian, I see his dad,” said Harper. “And it reminds me of watching Bob on stage for 2 1/2 hours that night. It is a full-circle moment, and I don't say that lightly. I've been a fan of Damian's music for a long time, and all the Marley brothers: Ky-Mani, Damian, Stephen, Ziggy. They're all extremely talented. The brothers are certainly their father's children, without a doubt.”
Much like Marley, Harper is able to channel the emotional pain caused by political situations he sees as wrong. “Black Rain,” a track from his latest album, talks about the injustices spawned from Hurricane Katrina and the suffering of the people of New Orleans in a visceral way. But in writing songs such as “Black Rain” in the studio, Harper found he'd written a couple of albums worth of tunes.
“ 'Black Rain' was written in the studio in response to the lack of response from this current administration in New Orleans,” said Harper. “I started with too many songs, and ended up with way too many songs.”
So from the opening finger-picked acoustic song “Morning Yearning” to the soaring “Serve Your Soul,” Harper decided to make two discs in his current project: one soft acoustic and inviting, the other more aggressive and electric. The result is a brilliant use of CD technology, a medium musicians rarely engage in any artistic fashion. In other words, just because you have the space to fit all 18 songs on one CD doesn't mean you should.
“It was a creative choice to split them up,” said Harper, exposing the process behind his decision. “Songs like 'Morning Yearning' – “A finger's touch upon my lips / it's a morning yearning” – and “Black Rain – “You left them swimming for their lives down in New Orleans” – weren't going to be on the same record. But at the same time, they both complete my life experience at the time creatively. I feel without each record it's an incomplete body of work.
“So I had to find a way to not have them on the same disc, but still have them in the same body of work,” said Harper. “That's how the double record came in. Both Virgin and I took a pay cut to put it out for the price of a single record.”
Besides his brush with the Marley family, another experience shaping Harper's life these days is his relationship with Laura Dern, whom he married on Dec. 23, 2005.
“I am greatly influenced by all my relationships, but none as much as the relationship closest to me, that being my wife,” said Harper. “She is an incredible inspiration. One thing I've learned: Love doesn't know if you're a celebrity or not. Love is the great equalizer.”
Chris Nixon is a San Diego music writer.
