It's nearly impossible to put your finger on Ben Harper's signature sound, mostly because the talented singer, songwriter, and guitarist has always mixed up liberal doses of blues, rock, soul, and folk into his music. From the time of his 1994 debut album, Welcome to the Cruel World, up to Both Sides of the Gun in 2006, Harper has continued to confound critics and defy categorization, which has won him a loyal, if not particularly mainstream audience.
Capitol Records has recently reissued Harper's entire catalog of eight studio albums, the performance album Live From Mars, and a pair of rare live EPs, all on beautiful limited edition vinyl record albums. As part of the label's "From The Capitol Vaults" initiative that previously reissued classic albums from the Beach Boys, Radiohead, Megadeth, and R.E.M., the restoration of Harper's catalog was supervised by the artist himself and pressed onto audiophile quality, 180-gram vinyl.
Harper's Welcome to the Cruel World has been reissued as a two-album set that includes a bonus color 7" single, and the vinyl version of Both Sides of the Gun includes an original poster. Now if we can get Capitol to dig into its vaults and reissue some classic blues sides, we'd all be that much happier. In the meantime, Ben Harper fans can enjoy the unique qualities of vinyl and hear the artist's music in an entirely different light.
Photo courtesy Price Grabber
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