Become Familiar with Ben Harper

I was looking to buy another Ben Harper album because I liked his latest effort,"Burn to Shine" very much. What I found was his first three CD's together (and a biographical booklet) for just 34 bucks (at CDNOW.) I didn't regret getting them at all. I bought it as a mild fan, now I have started 74 websites devoted to Ben, gotten 4 tattoos, and gone to 130 concerts on 4 continents. Just Kidding. But I am a big fan now.

Harper is the opposite of pretentious. He minds his own business and quietly over the years has made great music. I am sure that soon he will get wide-spread respect. His voice is unintrusive with its softness but powerful enough to stand out.

In this box, it is possible to follow his career chronologically. In the beginning, on "Welcome to the Cruel World," Harper primarily is a folk musician. Many of the songs are just him and an acoustic guitar ("The Three of Us"), while others have a nice beat ("Breakin' Down.")

His second one, "Fight for your Mind," displays more electric guitar. I would have to say this is my favorite of his four CD's. Every song sounds completely different and new. There is rockin' blues "Ground on Down," folk rock "Another Lonely Day," and a bit of hip-hop "Fight for your Mind."

The final CD is also great. He explores rock more on this one, "The Will to Live." There is traditional blues "Homeless Child," reggae "Jah Work," and rock "Faded."

Overall, he goes into about a dozen or so different genres of music, and never seems to overstretch. He doesn't ever try to do anything earth-shattering, but the sum of the parts really add up. It's hard to describe. He takes the best music of the past and makes it his own. Fairly often Harper gets political, but it's not too much. On "Like a King" he sings of the riots of Los Angeles in the early '90's.

The ONLY thing I see as a drawback of Harper's music is the prevelance of religion that he sings about. On 2-3 songs on each CD, he sings about religion. It seems a bit much.

Ben Harper is truly awesome and I encourage you to buy this box set to hear him, because if you buy one of the three seperately you won't be able to live with yourself because you'll want all of them.

"You've got to take your lead or you shall be led astray."