Finding His Voice

By CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY

Ben Harper's kinda like that cool documentary that's playing on one screen downtown that you've been meaning to catch for weeks now but somehow haven't been able to squeeze into your schedule although you've seen Romeo Must Die three times already. Harper has the right look and sound to be a subterranean music hero (his sound mixes protest folk and feedback rock, and his hairdo is a cross between Bob Dylan's and Jimi Hendrix's). But his songcraft--which is sometimes more about edginess than hooks--has always looked better on paper than it sounds on CD.

He's finally having a breakthrough moment, and it's happening online. Through July 4, Harper is offering listeners eight never-before-released live performances. The concert tracks are available only online www.benharperdownload.com and are distributed by Liquid Audio. One of the tracks, Nobody's Fault (a cover of a blues standard made famous by Blind Willie Johnson), is free, but the other tracks cost $1.99 each to download, or $9.99 for all seven.

Of course, a lot of rock 'n' rollers are making live tracks available on the Web these days (the British art-rock band Radiohead recently unveiled a live version of an intriguing new song titled Knives Out). What makes Harper's live tracks particularly noteworthy is that his Web-only performances represent his best work to date. His live versions improve and deepen his studio originals, bringing new intimacy to his songs. His live take on his song Steal My Kisses has an inviting, front-stoop feel; the acoustic plaint Widow of a Living Man deftly treads the line between pathos and empathy. The songs take a while to download (it took this critic several hours), but they're worth the wait.

--By Christopher John Farley