Singer-songwriter, musician and producer Ben Harper has announced his new studio album WIDE OPEN LIGHT, the follow up to his GRAMMY-nominated record BLOODLINE MAINTENANCE, to be released on June 2 via Chrysalis Records. Today, he shares the new single “Yard Sale” featuring long-time collaborator Jack Johnson, and revealed tour dates for summer 2023.
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.”
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.”
Following the release of WIDE OPEN LIGHT, Harper will tour on select dates with The Chicks, before heading out on his own extensive US tour this fall. Harper’s tour begins in Richmond, VA on September 29th, and will feature shows in Portland, ME, Buffalo, NY, Cincinnati, OH, MIlwaukee, WI and more, and will include performances at the Oceans Calling Music Festival and Sound on Sound Music & Arts Festival.
This month, Ben appears in the new AppleTV+ series “Extrapolations,” a fictional drama based in the near future when the effects of climate change have become embedded in our daily lives. The limited series features an all-star cast that also includes Daveed Diggs, David Schwimmer, Edward Norton, Forest Whitaker, Gemma Chan, Heather Graham, Meryl Streep, Tobey Maguire, Yara Shahidi and many more.
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.
Harper has recently been featured on CBS Mornings, ABC News, Forbes, SPIN and Variety, to name a few.
BEN HARPER TOUR DATES
Sat. Apr. 30 – Boulder, CO – Bluebird Music Festival
Sat. Jun. 10 – Torrey, UT – Fort Desolation Fest
Sat. Jul. 1 – Weimar, Germany – Seebühne Weimar c/o Weimarhalle
Mon. Jul. 3 – Paris, France – L’Olympia
Tue. Jul. 4 – Paris, France – L’Olympia
Wed. Jul. 5 – Paris, France – L’Olympia
Sat. Jul. 8 – Enghien, Belgium – LaSemo
Sun. Jul. 9 – Saint-Malô-du-Bois, France – Festival de Poupet *with Fatoumata Diawara, Colours In The Street
Tue. Jul. 11 – Milan, Italy – Circolo Magnolia *with John Butler
Wed. Jul. 12 – Verona, Italy – Castello Scaligero
Thu. Jul. 13 – Perugia, Italy – Arena Santa Giuliana
Sat. Jul. 15 – Tarvisio, Italy – Lago di Fusine Superiore
Sun. Jul. 16 – La Spezia, Italy – Piazza Giacomo Matteotti
Tue. Jul. 18 – Narbonne, France – Festival Jazz à l’Hospitalet
Wed. Jul. 19 – Lyon, France – Les Nuits de Fourvière
Thu. Jul. 20 – Vitrolles, France – Jardin Sonore Festival
Fri. Jul. 21 – Girona, Spain – Porta Ferrada
Sun. Jul. 23 – San Sebastián, Spain – Jazzaldia
Tue. Jul. 25 – Jerez, Spain – Tío Pepe Festival
Wed. Jul. 26 – Cascais, Portugal – CoolJazz
Fri. Jul. 28 – Marciac, France – Jazz in Marciac
Thu. Aug. 10 – Hershey, PA – Hersheypark Stadium *with The Chicks
Fri. Aug. 11 – Canandaigua, NY – CMAC Performing Arts Center *with The Chicks
Wed. Aug. 16 – Columbus, OH – Nationwide Arena *with The Chicks
Thu. Aug. 17 – Grand Rapids, MI – Van Andel Arena *with The Chicks
Sat. Aug. 19 – Des Moines, IA – Iowa State Fair Grandstand *with The Chicks
Fri. Aug. 25 – Toronto, Canada – Budweiser Stage *with City and Colour, Katie Tupper
Sat. Aug. 26 – Madison, WI – Kohl Center *with The Chicks
Sun. Aug. 27 – St. Louis, MO – Evolution Festival *with Brandi Carlile
Tue. Aug. 29 – Kansas City, MO – T-Mobile Center *with The Chicks
Wed. Aug. 30 – Omaha, NE – CHI Health Center Omaha *with The Chicks
Fri. Sep. 1 – Sioux Falls, SD – Denny Sanford PREMIER Center
Fri. Sep. 29 – Richmond, VA – The National
Sat. Sep 30 – Ocean City, MD – Oceans Calling Music Festival
Sun. Oct. 1 – Bridgeport, CT – Sound on Sound Music & Arts Festival
Tue. Oct. 03 – Portland, ME – State Theatre
Wed. Oct. 4 – Hampton Beach, NH – Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
Fri. Oct. 6 – Burlington, VT – The Flynn
For more information on Ben Harper, please visit www.benharper.com.
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