For immediate release
BEN AND ELLEN HARPER TO RELEASE ‘CHILDHOOD HOME’ MAY 6
TO HEAR THE TRACK “A HOUSE IS A HOME” CLICK HERE
(Toronto, ON – 19 March 2014) – Ben Harper and his mother Ellen Harper have collaborated to create Childhood Home, an absorbing, deeply personal collection of original songs set for release on May 6 through Concord/Universal Music Canada, the country’s leading Music Company. Available just in time for Mother’s Day, the ten songs on Childhood Home, six written by Ben and four written by Ellen, explore the intricacies of family life with honesty and generous intimacy.
The album’s source can be directly traced to the pair’s highly unusual, musical heritage. In 1958, Ben Harper’s maternal grandparents established The Folk Music Center and Museum in Claremont, California. It was there, amid all manner of international instruments, that a distinctively musical family took shape. Ellen Harper, a talented multi-instrumentalist in her own right, encouraged her family to use the store (which she still operates) as a musical laboratory. The center was a magnet for up-and-comers such as Ry Cooder, David Lindley and Taj Mahal, who became extended family members, providing master classes in creativity and philosophy for a young Ben Harper.
“I was a single mom, so he would come to the music store pretty much every day after school, and help out while I was working. I think he just absorbed a lot of it,” Ellen told a local paper. “It was in his environment, everywhere, because I used to play in bands, and he used to hang out with us all the time.” After his grandfather’s passing in 2004, Ben told the LA Times “Without that upbringing, I don’t think I’d be doing what I do”.
The tender, artfully crafted story sketches on Childhood Home are laced with an undercurrent of love, wistfulness and, sometimes, pain. On A House Is A Home, Ben and Ellen sing about the trials and tribulations of living with family. On Memories of Gold, the lyrics describe the idea of truthfulness cutting through sweet nostalgia and on Altar of Love the sacrifice and despair of domestic life is devotedly delivered by Ellen Harper.
Ben Harper produced Childhood Home “like early Elvis,” he told Rolling Stone, after he and Charlie Musselwhite won the Best Blues Album GRAMMY Award for last year’s critically acclaimed Get Up! “Not one thing is plugged in. It’s all acoustic. I think they’re going to call it ‘Americana,’ but it’s soul, California, folk rock, American.”
Addressing a hometown audience, Ben recently affirmed: “I’ve always figured home is where you run from, and then run to.” Ben and Ellen Harper find the circle unbroken on Childhood Home.
Childhood Home Tracklist:
01. A House Is a Home
02. City of Dreams
03. Born to Love You
04. Heavyhearted World
05. Farmer’s Daughter
06. Memories of Gold
07. Altar of Love
08. Break Your Heat
09. Learn It All Again Tomorrow
10. How Could We Not Believe
Ben Harper on the Web:
benharper.com
twitter.com/benharper
facebook.com/benharper
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