Folk, blues, hard rock, country, jazz and reggae are just a few of the genres that Ben Harper has delved into throughout his career. Harper picked up the guitar at an early age and began performing publicly at 12. Shortly after appearing alongside Taj Mahal in 1992, Harper signed with Virgin Records. His first album, Welcome to the Cruel World, introduced him as a folk-rocker with a soft, evocative voice and politically-charged lyrics. Fight for Your Mind (1995) features Harper’s precocious capabilities on the Weissenborn (a hollow-necked lap-steel guitar), while The Will to Live (1997) and Burn to Shine 1999), by he and his band, The Innocent Criminals, highlight his move toward a more electric sound. The latter included the funky, “Steal My Kisses,” which reached Number 15 on the Adult Top 40 chart. Harper released the double-disc, Live From Mars, in 2001 and toured extensively before releasing his next album, Diamonds on the Inside. In 2006, Harper came back with Both Sides of the Gun. In 2007, he released Lifeline, which he recorded in Paris in a single week on a 16-track analog tape machine without the aid of any computers. Harper released Call It What It Is in 2016. In 2019, Harper performed as a guest artist on the seventeenth season of American Idol during the second night of the “Top 20 Duets” episode. Ben Harper continues to tour around the globe.
