Anybody into Ben Harper?

Mapleleaf,
You should try to find his first album, Welcome to the Cruel World. Its a little more melancholy and the recording is less than stellar, but it feels more sincere. He also does some pretty slick work with a Weissenborn, a lap-style acoustic slide guitar.
If you like Ben, you should try Keb' Mo or Jack Johnson. Great blues-based acoustic guitar.
Happy Listening, Mark

new live from mars by ben. also check out adrian legg,
don ross, and jesse cook. kurt

Mapleleaf,

Excellent musical choice. Ben Harper's second album, "Fight For Your Mind", is a classic album. It is harder and harder to find great albums. I can tell you that I am now listening to Aimee Mann's "Bachelor Number Two", Willie Nelson's "Teatro", Gomez's "Liquid Skin" and "Bring It On", and Elvis Costello's "All This Useless Beauty". Check out the first Son Volt album, "Trace" and the last two Uncle Tupelo albums, "Anodyne" and "March 15-23 1992". Happy Listening.

I like Ben's first two best. "Welcome to the Cruel World" and "Fight for Your Mind". The remainder have much less soul and therefore do less for me. I hope he returns to his earlier style one day.

i'm with redkiwi on this one (BTW, good to see your monikor again). ben harper started his career in the republic of boulder, colo. (just up the road..... err, turnpike, a piece). his early work was acoustic, "new folk" of the variety that includes, for example, ani difranco and greg brown. i'm fortunate to have some of his solo performances recorded at e-town and studio c. of his latest work, i greatly enjoy "steal my kisses." sounds great on fm but, alas, is not really well recorded. a good friend of mine who's known ben for many years played for me recently an unreleased lp master of ben on solo, acoustic - WOW! he wouldn't entertain an offer. -kelly