Ben Harper finds “No Mercy In This Land”
Interview Conducted February 25, 2018
By M.F. Andrews
Ben Harper has followed up his Grammy Award winning album with Charlie Musselwhite, Get Up!. No Mercy In This Land is due to be released March 30 and it may surpass all expectations of the first album. Unrated Magazine managed to get a telephone interview with the multi genre singer, songwriter and guitarist. The three-time Grammy Award winner has managed to stay grounded despite all the accolades he has received.
Harper revealed in his interview that his biggest influence in music was and is his mother. “She made sure we (with
Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite
two brothers) were surrounded with great music. She was a great musician. My mom and I made a record a few years back called Childhood Home. We did a duet record. My mom plays guitar and sings beautifully. I’ve been singing and playing something and banging away as long as I can remember. We had a piano at the center of the house. My mom was a professional touring musician who found herself with three nappy-headed kids, having to make ends meet. That’s why Childhood Home was kind of a big moment for both of us. I was able to bring that back to her. That was her first major record. She would recruit me at the age of six or seven to sing the harmony part. She would be rehearsing for her band and she would say ‘I need to rehearse the harmony line and here’s how the harmony line goes. You sing this part and I’m going to sing the melody.’ She’d give me a third or fifth chord and I’d learn it. I’d sing harmony along with my mom.” He admits that the blues has had the most influence on him.
When asked about the process of making the new album, harper responded, “I started thinking about this record as soon as we walked out of the studio from recording Get Up! I didn’t know Get Up! was going to blast like it did. I figured that I had a stockpile of songs I had set aside. Originally, Charlie and I had threatened to do this for 15 or 16 years. I had put plenty of blues on my previous records. Once Charlie and I had started talking about it around the late nineties, John Lee (Hooker) said we should just do it. Hooker said, “You two need to play together more, that’s a great sound.” As soon as the talk heated up, I thought I’m not going to put “I’m In I’m Out And I’m Gone” on my record. I’m going to put it aside. I had been preparing to work with Charlie for a while. Then, I thought maybe we would go in the studio for a week and get a half a dozen tracks done and see what happens. We went in for Get Up! and we had the whole record done in eight to nine days. You don’t want to hang anything too heavy around the expectations. Boy, it lifted off. I went, ‘You know what? This is its own sound. This is something we can pursue as long as the good Lord lets us.’ We recorded two one-week sessions with No Mercy In This Land. It took one week to mix. I was prepared like never before. After doing Get Up! I had a new lens to look through and to aim towards. That was Charlie’s harp. Charlie’s harp is the voice and the center of the circle. It grounds all of us and all this music in history. His harp gives the music its weight.”
“I did write every song on the album lyrically. I brought the music to the table (of the musicians on the record).
Ben Harper
Jason Mozersky on guitar, Jimmy Paxson on drums, and Jesse Ingalls on bass are the players. The way I’ve been writing as of late is that I bring the song lyrics to the players. I don’t tell them what to play and they figure it out. I tell them the reason you are here is because you are brilliant. Write your part. Everybody contributes. People make suggestions. We are an opinionated bunch. Everybody writes his part. Everybody gets writing credits. I’ve grown into doing that. I wouldn’t do that in every recording session because in certain settings I know exactly what I want from every instrument. In this rare case, I said this is how it must be. Charlie Musselwhite writes Charlie Musselwhite. There is one song, “Found the One” that came to life in the studio. I had the words to the song and the guitar player and drummer started banging away. They made a beautiful racket and I said okay, let me pull some lyrics. I had some lyrics on deck for “Found the One.”
When asked about the best advice he ever got, Harper said, “My family has had a music store in Claremont, CA in the Inland Empire in Southern Calif. for sixty years. So, I grew up in a music store. Everybody from Sonny Terry, to Leonard Cohen and Rev Gary Davis would come in. It was a very special environment. These people came through those doors for 60 years. Jackson Browne and David Lindley also came to the store. My grandfather said, ‘People come around and they are interested in your music. Don’t let the praise make you and don’t make the criticism break you.’ I try to walk the line, so it won’t go to my head and it won’t break my heart if you are over it. I’d rather have you like it. And as Charlie Musselwhite says, “I admire your taste.”
When asked dead or alive, who he would like to meet, Harper said, “I would have loved to meet Robert Johnson because he is everything. Robert Johnson singlehandedly invented Springsteen and Bob Dylan as far as I’m concerned. You listen to “Come On to My Kitchen” and that’s everything. That is the history of rock and roll. Without Johnson there would be no Chuck Berry or Bob Dylan. He’s everything. I could just imagine having his ear for ten minutes. I would have to say that Robert Johnson would be the person I would like to see perform as well.”
“I would have been in instrument repairman if I wasn’t a performer. I apprenticed to do that before I started performing. I learned the craft inside and out. I probably be would be halfway decent at it by now. “
In No Mercy In This Land, Harper has touched on the spirituality of the human condition. The album is remarkable and it is worthy of many ‘listens.’
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