Who's Using Fishman?

Ben has established himself as one of the world's most versatile and hard-working musicians - and one of its top concert draws.  After completing his usual extensive tour, Harper had started writing and was preparing to make his next album when he got a call from the legendary gospel dynasty the Blind Boys of Alabama. "They asked me to produce a couple of songs," he says, "and that quickly turned into its own world." The "world" it became was the critically acclaimed, 2X Grammy-winning 2004 collaboration “There Will Be a Light,” which was in turn followed by the riveting “Live at the Apollo” DVD. Harper says that working with these legends, on stage and in the studio, quite simply altered his entire approach to making music. "Before the Blind Boys, I used to sing," he says. "With and after the Blind Boys, I may have become a singer."

Throughout his career, Harper has bounced between recording on his own, with other musicians, and with his long-time partners, the Innocent Criminals; on Both Sides he utilized all three configurations. As always, though, he's excited to take the new songs out and road test them with the band.  With “Both Sides of the Gun,” Ben Harper has raised that bar to new heights. For him, though, it's just one more step in a career that's still building. "I've never made a record that didn't feel like it was my first," he says, "with the same excitement, the same enthusiasm and intensity." Of course, in the dozen years since that first record, he's built a loyal fan base around the globe, but he sees the expectations of his audience as a challenge, not a limitation.