Singer-songwriter, musician and producer Ben Harper has announced his new studio album WIDE OPEN LIGHT, to be released on June 2 via Chrysalis Records, the follow up to his GRAMMY-nominated record BLOODLINE MAINTENANCE. Following the release of WIDE OPEN LIGHT, Harper will head out on an extensive US tour this fall. Harper’s tour will include a performance in Cincinnati, OH at The Andrew J Brady Music Center on Wednesday, October 11 and will feature support by The Jack Moves.
WIDE OPEN LIGHT is described by Ben as a family of songs he's written where each track is a close relative to the next. It's deliberately minimalist and the songs themselves do as much of the heavy lifting as the production. “There was once a time when albums didn’t need an adjacent story or fable. When the songs were enough,” Ben says. “I’m excited to return to this.”
Harper shares the new single “Yard Sale” featuring long-time collaborator Jack Johnson. The new single “Yard Sale,” Ben explains, “follows a man through the final blurred stages of a breakup. With each passing verse the couple grows further beyond reach or repair. By the song's end, he’s more confused than when the song began.”
As a 3x-GRAMMY-winner, Harper has amassed international critical applause and a worldwide fan following for his own genre-traversing body of work while also producing acclaimed albums by Mavis Staples, Rickie Lee Jones, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Natalie Maines, Ziggy Marley, and others. An inveterate collaborator, Harper has also recorded with a diverse span of artists ranging from John Lee Hooker, Charlie Musselwhite, to Ringo Starr, Keith Richards and, most recently, Harry Styles, to contribute his signature guitar work to the superstar’s chart-topping album, HARRY’S HOUSE. Harper joined Styles for an astounding 12 nights of performances at The Kia Forum in Los Angeles this past fall.