The Gospel According to Ben.

With his recent prolific song production Ben Harper has been in danger of wearing out his welcome. “Lifeline” however, defies the odds, and like the five other albums he’s released this decade, it is close to flawless. The album it most resembles is not the potential big commercial breakthroughs of “Diamonds on the Inside” and “Both Sides of the Gun” but the humble gospel album he recorded with the Blind Boys of Alabama called “There is a Light.”  While that album showed off his best church manners, “Lifeline” shows what Ben is like on the other six days of the week. 

Sexy, acoustic soul simmers throughout the album’s eleven original tunes. With the exception of the last two songs, an instrumental and Harper’s solo performance of the title song, The Innocent Criminals backing is stellar. From the super bass line in “In the Colors”, the funky chicken scratch guitar of “Put it On Me” and country rock harmonica of “Fool For a Lonesome Train”, Harper integrates his band’s contributions as he did for the Blind Boys of Alabama on their collaboration. Rather than political statements, Harper focuses on the politics of relationships. On “Fight Outta You.” he sings, “Shoulda known better than to mistake business for love, shoulda known better than to mistake a fist for a glove.”   

“Lifeline was recorded on a 16-track analog tape machine. No computers were used anywhere in the process” Harper proudly declares in the liner notes. Not so impressive in these days of mp3 downloads. The key was getting his band in the studio immediately following their nine-month tour to record these songs they had been rehearsing at sound checks. It took them only seven days to capture this lightning in a bottle.    

Listen for songs from the album “Lifeline” by Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals all this week on Paul Shugrue’s new music show “Out of the Box.” Monday through Thursday from 7 pm to 9pm, Saturday afternoon from 1 pm to 5 pm and on demand at www.whrv.org/outofthebox.