Ben Harper Releases “We Need To Talk About It”

BEN HARPER RELEASES “WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT”

3X GRAMMY® AWARD-WINNING ARTIST SHARES BLISTERING FIRST SINGLE

FROM EAGERLY AWAITED CHRYSALIS RECORDS DEBUT ALBUM

OFFICIAL VISUALIZER STREAMING NOW – WATCH

 LIVE SCHEDULE INCLUDES WORLDWIDE HEADLINE DATES, TOP-BILLED FESTIVAL PERFORMANCES, AND 15-NIGHT RUN SUPPORTING HARRY STYLES AT LOS ANGELES’ KIA FORUM HEADLINE DATES

“WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT” AVAILABLE NOW AT ALL DSPS AND STREAMING SERVICES

BLOODLINE MAINTENANCE ARRIVES VIA CHRYSALIS RECORDS ON FRIDAY, JULY 22

3x GRAMMY® Award-winning singer-songwriter/musician/producer Ben Harper has shared “We Need To Talk About It,” available now at all DSPs and streaming services. An official visualizer premieres today at YouTube HERE.

Produced by Harper and GRAMMY® Award-winner Sheldon Gomberg, “We Need To Talk About It” marks the first single from Harper’s eagerly anticipated fiercely personal soulful album, BLOODLINE MAINTENANCE, due via his new deal with Chrysalis Records on Friday, July 22. Pre-orders are available now HERE.

Propelled by Harper’s blisteringly funky guitar, “We Need To Talk About It” defiantly addresses the wounds of slavery through a sharp-edged call-and-response with gospel-fueled backing vocals and pounding rhythms augmented by the distinctive sound of the African talking drum.

LISTEN TO “WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT”

WATCH OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO

PRE-ORDER BLOODLINE MAINTENANCE

Harper – joined by his longtime band, The Innocent Criminals – will herald BLOODLINE MAINTENANCE with an epic world tour highlighted by North American and European headline dates, festival performances, US shows alongside Jack Johnson, and a 15-night run supporting his recent collaborator Harry Styles at Los Angeles, CA’s Kia Forum. More headlining dates will be announced. For updates and ticket information, please visit www.benharper.com/tour.

BEN HARPER & THE INNOCENT CRIMINALS

WORLD TOUR 2022

JULY

3 – Casablanca, Morocco – Jazzablanca

7 – Cognac, France – Cognac Blues Passions

9 – Bruges, Belgium – Cactus Festival

10 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Paradiso

11 – Luxembourg, Luxembourg – Abbaye de Neumünster

13 – Marostica, Italy – Marostica Summer Festival

15 – Nîmes, France – Festival de Nîmes

16 – Saint-Julien-en-Genevois, France – Guitare en Scène

17 – Lucca, Italy – Lucca Summer Festival

19 – Nichelino, Italy – Stupinigi Sonic Park

20 – Pratteln, Switzerland – Z7 Summer Nights Open Air

22 – Barcelona, Spain – Festival Jardins Pedralbes

23 – Girona, Spain – Sons del Món

25 – Madrid, Spain – Noches del Botánico

28 – Carcassonne, France – Festival de Carcassonne

29 – Gignac, France – Le Festival Ecaussysteme à Gignac

31 – Colmar, France – Foire aux Vins d’Alsace

AUGUST

2 – Palmanova, Italy – Piazza Grande

3 – San Mauro Pascoli, Italy – Acieloaperto Festival

4 – Rome, Italy – Cavea Auditorium Parco Della Musica

6 – Taormina, Italy – Teatro Antico di Taormina

9 – Riola Sardo, Italy – Parco dei Suoni

11 – Brescia, Italy – Festa di Radio Onda d’Urto

SEPTEMBER

15-18 – Victoria, BC – Rifflandia Festival *

18 – Saratoga, CA – Mountain Winery

20 – Eugene, OR – Cuthbert Amphitheater

21 – Bend, OR – Clear Summer Nights

22 – Troutdale, OR – McMenamins Edgefield

24 – George, WA – Gorge Amphitheatre ^

OCTOBER

7 – Chula Vista, CA – North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre ^

23 – Inglewood, CA – Kia Forum †

24 – Inglewood, CA – Kia Forum †

26 – Inglewood, CA – Kia Forum †

28 – Inglewood, CA – Kia Forum †

29 – Inglewood, CA – Kia Forum †

31 – Inglewood, CA – Kia Forum †

NOVEMBER

2 – Inglewood, CA – Kia Forum †

4 – Inglewood, CA – Kia Forum †

5 – Inglewood, CA – Kia Forum †

7 – Inglewood, CA – Kia Forum †

9 – Inglewood, CA – Kia Forum †

11 – Inglewood, CA – Kia Forum †

12 – Inglewood, CA – Kia Forum †

14 – Inglewood, CA – Kia Forum †

15 – Inglewood, CA – Kia Forum †

* Festival Performance

^ w/Jack Johnson

† w/Harry Styles

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(Photo Credit: Michael Halsband)

 

The new album is a work largely inspired by the loss of a longtime friend and the lingering influence of a mercurial and charismatic father, BLOODLINE MAINTENANCE sees Harper performing the majority of the instruments on his own, spanning guitar, bass, drums and an eclectic assortment of percussions including a plastic toy snare. His 17th studio LP – and first since 2020’s instrumental WINTER IS FOR LOVERS –and the first non-instrumental solo album of new songs since 2016. The new album is further fueled by Harper’s signature lap steel, supercharged through a powerful Dumble amplifier creating a truly unruly tone that Harper describes as “a sort of a merging of Robert Johnson and Jimi Hendrix.”

“It was like I was moving forward and venturing into places I had never been before,” he says. “Taking everything I’ve learned from every other record and kind of setting fire to it all and starting over. And I knew the sounds I was hearing in my head were so unorthodox that I had to do most of it myself.”

Applying the inventiveness of hip-hop to longstanding paradigms of soul, blues and jazz, spinning it all forward into a reconfiguration of a new black Americana, BLOODLINE MAINTENANCE continues Harper’s long history as one of his generation’s most potent protest singers. Persecuted by local authorities for being a communist, his grandfather moved his family west where their music store, the Folk Music Center and Museum in Claremont, CA, proved a vital hub in a thriving Southern California folk scene. There Harper learned guitar as a child, playing his first official gig at the age of 12. By the time he was 21, he was touring with blues legend Taj Mahal. The years that followed have seen Harper amass international critical applause and a worldwide fan following, winning three GRAMMY® Awards (out of seven total nominations) 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, and Jack Johnson to Ringo Starr, Keith Richards and, most recently, Harry Styles, contributing his signature guitar work to the latter superstar’s chart-topping new album, HARRY’S HOUSE.

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BEN HARPER

BLOODLINE MAINTENANCE

(Chrysalis Records)

Release Date: Friday, July 22

TRACKLIST

Below Sea Level

We Need to Talk About It

Where Did We Go Wrong

Problem Child

Need to Know Basis

It Ain’t No Use

More Than Love

Smile at the Mention

Honey, Honey

Knew the Day Was Comin’

Maybe I Can’t

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