5/5
Winter Song.
Weaving strings on his lap like yarn, Ben Harper has so much to say without a single word. The lyrical legend has always waxed classic couplets and epic entendres compelling to the ears, hearts and minds of so many relatable souls. Take the 2018 call to action 'No Mercy In This Land' follow up to his best blues Grammy winning 'Get Up' collaboration with icon Charlie Musselwhite. On the title track he puts it plainly as the tomorrow is a new day you see after a dark night like his late friend Heath Ledger, whose daughter he wrote a lullaby for ('Happy Everafter In Your Eyes' off his greatest hit album 'Both Sides Of The Gun' after the 'Brokeback Mountain' actor directed the violin visual, ballet dance of a music video to Harper's most string beautiful track, 'Morning Yearning'). "Spend your whole life with one woman/Die and leave her your farm/The very next day she's on your best friend's arm/There ain't no worries/You can't drink away." Or how about the 'Bad Habits' of, "When a man gives you his hat/He's living on borrowed time/The shoe fit so I wore it/But I left one lace untied." Or "Broken hearts and broken dreams/Turns out they weigh the same/Passed down through generations/Like the family name/There's a gilded coat of arms/For those who heal from within/But tonight the bottle wins again", circling the drain of the shot glass on 'The Bottle Wins Again' for a man that sings, "Everybody says I love you/But not everybody lives I love you". "I could've held you more carefully/And I suppose you could've been there for me". "Choosing not to remember/Is no way to forget/That's just a losing bet". "These old streets of shame/Will they ever look the same/Will they remember our name"Just ask the dust" on 'When Love Is Not Enough' for a man whose underrated work is more than as it speaks for itself, but still needs to be shouted about. And that's just the last album. This is the same man who believing in a 'Better Way' told us to, "take your face out of your hand and clear your eyes/you have a right to your dream and don't be denied", like "another day, another chance to get it right" like this one.
You'd have to live his life to get boots like his as they walk through the snow of his latest, perfect project. The Innocent Criminal and bandsman who has worked with everyone from Musslewhite to his own mother Ellen on their beautiful 'Childhood Home' has more collaboration projects than an artist has canvases, but still he can go at it alone like he does here. Hallmark heartfelt and hauntingly in black and white. Sleety portrait capturing love like running into the arms of the one that will hold you through it all. Ben Harper has worked with Criminals, the gospel of The Blind Boys Of Alabama and the raw and ready Relentless7 (we still can't wait to that follow up for the unbelievably more than a decade old 'White Lies For Dark Times'...we're still living in them...in need of being given some truth like John Lennon on his 80th birthday). He even formed a Fistful Of Mercy supergroup with Joseph Arthur and the son of a Beatle, Dhani Harrison in between having Ringo Starr drum on solo sets (the all on the studio floor, 'Give 'Till It's Gone') that deserves an encore. Not to mention prolifically produced soul legend Mavis Staples last groundbreaking set, 'We Get By'. But as classic as these collabos have been, like fighting for your mind after being welcomed to the cruel world with the will to live, Benjamin Chase Harper is outstanding on his own like the 'Amen Omen' of his signature 'Diamonds On The Inside'. Even without a word. As this locked down album in the terrible and tragic 2020 in quarantine, sees the singer return after his 'Uneven Days' mental health look last year when we really need him on the same day Boss Springsteen writes a 'Letter To You'. Taking a seat, putting his iconic guitar on his lap like tradition and picking and plucking away at an inspired, influential instrumental album.
'Winter Is For Lovers' like long coats and sweeping the sludge off the streets. And in his sweet, sixteenth set, Ben let's the one he loves dearly leap into his arms as he picks her up on the sidewalk and spins her around the Manhatthan streets with the iconic New York brick beginnings of the signature skyline surrounding them like beautiful bookends. The album artwork is exactly that...put it in his greatest hits gallery. The tracks like 'Manhattan' or borough neighbouring 'Harlem' are testament to that for this singers single and 'Inland Empire'. As Harper harmonizes without so much as a hum from 'Toronto' to 'Paris' by way of 'London' and all the way back again like 'Montreal' or a reprise in the six with stirring strings. This whole single guitar album like Rodrigo Y Gabriela clocks in at just over a half hour...but we could talk about it for days on end when it's all said and done. With the sun drawing in like the days, 'Lovers' is the deep dedication we need like Springsteen's 'Letter' on the same day for the longest year that needs a weekend break like this. The man with the Dylan rivalling American songbook...and Bruce too. Like the warm 'Winter's' embrace inside the arms of the one that would never do you harm, this release will hold you down and over until better times come like changing weather in this calendar of corona and brutality. 'Call It What It Is', Harper and his hallmark, leading band The Innocent Criminals have always spoke out about Black Lives Mattering like the 2016 album that came around after the deaths of Eric Garner and Trayvon Martin, but this year Ben is with us in silent solidarity musically. From 'Istanbul' to 'Lebanon' and all the 'Brittany's' and 'Bizanet's' in between. Each song taking you to a different chord and country as the fingers find new ways to travel in all this social isolation from a stay at home distance. As like fair 'Verona' Harper lays a scene. From 'Islip' all the way to a 'Joshua Tree' like Bono and U2 on the edge of the fall. After all on his 'Omen' this is the 'Diamond' man who once said, "silence is the loudest parting word you never say". And we can't wait to actually hear from him again. Amen. As cold as it's got this year. You're going to love this Winter like the one you hold dear. Love is alive. Don't let go of this now. 'Tis the season for us. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'London', 'Paris', 'Toronto'.
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