''Wide Open Light'' is the seventeenth studio album by American singer-songwriter
Ben Harper
Benjamin Charles Harper (born October 28, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Harper plays an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae, and rock music, and he is known for his guitar-playing skills, vocals, liv ...
, released on June 2, 2023, through
Chrysalis Records
Chrysalis Records () is a British independent record label that was founded in 1968. The name is both a reference to the pupal stage of a butterfly and a combination of its founders' names, Chris Wright and Terry Ellis. It started as the Ell ...
. It was preceded by the lead single "Yard Sale" featuring Jack Johnson. Harper will tour Europe and North America from July 2023.
Background
In an interview with ''
Harper's Bazaar
''Harper's Bazaar'' (stylized as ''Harper's BAZAAR'') is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. Bazaar has been published in New York City since November 2, 1867, originally as a weekly publication entitled ''Harper's Bazar''."Corporat ...
'', the album is described as a "stripped-down, minimally-produced meditation on love, loss, and longing featuring 11 previously unreleased songs." Harper explained, "I've been setting certain songs aside for the day I would hopefully release this album. It captures me exploring my way to being 53 years old... At its finest, it’s a reinvention of a style and sound. It’s something different than what is obviously categorizable because it's Black folk soul music.
Most of the songs contain instrumentation only from an acoustic guitar, with ''
Spin
Spin or spinning most often refers to:
* Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles
* Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin
* Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...
'' describing the songs as "spare and organic" and Harper stating that he has not "been that raw and that exposed on record—just me and guitar—for an entire album ever". He described his motive for a mostly acoustic album as "There was once a time when albums didn't need an adjacent story or fable. When the songs were enough." The album was additionally described in a press statement as "a family of songs ..where each track is a close relative to the next" and "deliberately minimalist".
Critical reception
''Glide Magazine''s Jim Hynes described the album as "a straight-forward singer-songwriter album, a folk album centered on personal songs, each related to the next, weighted toward pivotal moments and resilience", calling its centerpiece "Yard Sale" due to its "clever lyrics" and "catchy chorus". Hynes concluded that "the crafty imagery, wordplay, and indelible choruses will likely linger". Hal Horwowitz wrote for ''
American Songwriter
''American Songwriter'' is a bimonthly magazine covering songwriting. Established in 1984, it features interviews, songwriting tips, news, reviews and lyric contest. The magazine is based in Nashville, Tennessee.
History
The ''American Songwri ...
'' that the album provides a "tantalizing, understated intimacy few other singer/songwriters can conjure with this spare, dialed-down approach." ''Riff Magazines Tony Hicks wrote, "Harper vocally channels
Cat Stevens
Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou; ), commonly known by his stage names Cat Stevens, Yusuf, and Yusuf / Cat Stevens, is a British singer-songwriter and musician. He has sold more than 100 million records and has more than two billion st ...
and
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter known for his solo work and his collaborations with Art Garfunkel. He and Garfunkel, whom he met in elementary school in 1953, came to prominence in the 1960s as Sim ...
, pouring his heart out while mixing his voice with lots of slide guitar, piano and heartfelt arrangement. It’s raw and moody and, at times, evokes memories of campfires and clouds parting over green hills."
lap steel guitar
The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar or lap slide guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of pla ...
(2–5), piano (3, 6), acoustic guitar (3), guitar (5, 7–11),
mandocello
The mandocello () is a plucked string instrument of the mandolin family. It is larger than the mandolin, and is the baritone instrument of the mandolin family. Its eight strings are in four paired courses, with the strings in each course tuned in ...
Shelby Lynne
Shelby Lynne (born Shelby Lynn Moorer, October 22, 1968) is an American singer and songwriter and the older sister of singer-songwriter Allison Moorer. The success of her pop rock album '' I Am Shelby Lynne'' (1999) led to her winning the Grammy A ...
– additional vocals on (4)
* Jack Johnson – vocals,
slack-key guitar
Slack-key guitar (from Hawaiian ''kī hōalu'', which means "loosen the uningkey") is a fingerstyle genre of guitar music that originated in Hawaii. This style of guitar playing, which has been used for centuries, involves altering the standard ...
(5)
*
Piers Faccini
Piers Damian G. Faccini (born 1970) is an English singer, painter, and songwriter.
Biography
Piers Faccini was born in London, England to an Italian father and an English mother. His family moved to France when he was five years old. His brot ...
production
Production may refer to:
Economics and business
* Production (economics)
* Production, the act of manufacturing goods
* Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services)
* Production as a stat ...
* Jason Mozersky – production (all tracks), guitar engineering (4)
*
Danny Kalb
Daniel Ira Kalb (September 9, 1942 – November 19, 2022) was an American blues guitarist and vocalist. He was an original member of the 1960s group the Blues Project.
Life and career
Kalb was a protégé of Dave Van Ronk and became a solo per ...
engineering
Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...
(11)
*
Gavin Lurssen
Gavin Lurssen is an American mastering engineer. He owns Lurssen Mastering in Hollywood, California.mastering
* James Shaw – mixing, engineering (2)
* Sheldon Gomberg – engineering (1)
* Kevin Smith – engineering (1)
* Jaime Sickora – engineering (6)
* Gabriel Veltri – engineering for Shelby Lynne (4)
* Simon Beins – engineering for Jack Johnson (5)
* Mike Valerio – bass engineering (3)
* Jimmy Paxson – drum engineering (10)
* Rebecca Schlappich – violin engineering (10)
Visuals
* Jackie Phillips – art design
* Ben Harper – cover photo
*
Michael Halsband
Michael Halsband is an American photographer. He makes portraits of celebrities, from musicians to artists, and produces work for fashion and lifestyle publications. He has also directed short films, music videos and commercials.
Early life a ...