Last performing in Australia in 2019 at the 30th anniversary of Byron Bay Bluesfest, Ben Harper returns to theatres in February 2023, performing music spanning his entire catalogue along with music from his brand-new acclaimed album, Bloodline Maintenance.
The GRAMMY nominated Bloodline Maintenance is both a political and personally revealing work. It is soul music, but never a stylistic tribute to some by-gone era. The sound and words are essential and undeniably timely.
“It was like I was moving forward and venturing into places I had never been before. Taking everything I’ve learned from every other record and kind of setting fire to it all and starting over,” Ben Harper says of his new album. “And I knew the sounds I was hearing in my head were so unorthodox that I had to do most of it myself.”
Produced by Harper and long-time studio collaborator Sheldon Gomberg, Bloodline Maintenance applies the inventiveness of hip-hop to longstanding paradigms of soul, blues and jazz, continuing his long history as one of this generation’s most prominent protest singers.
Harper has amassed international critical applause and a worldwide fan following, winning three GRAMMY® Awards 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, and others. An inveterate collaborator, Harper has also recorded with a diverse span of artists ranging from John Lee Hooker, Charlie Musselwhite, and Jack Johnson to Ringo Starr, Keith Richards and, most recently, Harry Styles.
