Album Reviews

Despite being an agnostic with an outright hostility towards religion, this double Grammy winning gospel/rock set by Ben Harper and The Blind Boys of Alabama masterfully recorded at Capitol's historic Studio B Hollywood Studio has spent more time on my turntable and iPod than most of what's been released lately.

Listening to someone else's religious ecstasy is akin to watching porno in my book. Both kinds of relationships should be very personal. In fact, if I were writing a political protest song for 2005 it would be called “Keep Your Jesus Out of My Face.” If I offend you, tough. I'm fed up with having religion shoved in my face by the so-called “religious right” and especially by warmongering politicians upon whom the distinction between “turn the other cheek” and “turn the other butt cheek” is obviously lost. End of sermon.

Back in the '50s and '60s, church music became secularized. Today we're going in the opposite direction and when you listen to “Where Could I Go,” you'll know what I mean. It's straightforward Stax/Volt but instead of someone like Otis Redding pleading for one more chance with a former girlfriend, the song's protagonist gives himself over to God.

Harper's in great voice here, propelled by his band just off a European tour. If the rocking “Church House Steps” doesn't get you rocking, the devil's got you (I'm getting into it now).

Hearing folks express with bold certainty what some of us consider the very mysteries that make life interesting usually turns me off, but here the sentiment is supercharged with jet propelled music making. The combination of Harper and his hard rocking band backed by the soaring, sonorous voices of The Blind Boys of Alabama is kind of like what it might have sounded like had the original Temptations backed Otis Redding and the Cropper/Dunn band in a more secular age. Or something like that.

If I can rock to “Picture of Jesus,” so can you. The recording is in your face great. These guys don't need studio tricks or sonic distance to sound great so the miking is tight and the tracks good and dry. With the exception of the centered drums, the instruments are pretty much hard left/right, leaving plenty of space for the lead vocals, with the Blind Boys nicely spread across the stage. The a cappella “Mother Pray” mesmerizes.

Good sound isn't surprising since Harper has an audiophile history. His first album, Pleasure and Pain in a duo with songwriter Tom Freund was recorded and issued by Cardas Audio back in 1992.

The LP is one of those “anonymously” mastered jobs, sourced from who knows what and pressed who knows where on 180g vinyl. Hopefully RTI was not involved because the vinyl quality on my copy at least was atrocious. Bacon frying is the backdrop, though with repeated vacuum cleanings it got better. The LP has greater immediacy, punch and bass extension, but the CD's sonics are somewhat more graceful. Too bad the pressing quality doesn't match the sumptuous gatefold LP packaging. Still, I'd go with the LP. Wow. What a surprise.

Sadly, original Blind Boy George Scott, the big baritone voice you'll hear on this disc, passed away last March. He was once quoted in The Birmingham, Alabama News as saying “Way back in the day, when Little Richard and Sam Cook went rock'n'roll, we had plenty of offers to do the same. But we're soldiers for God, and we'll be that until we die.” And so he was as you'll hear on this rousing record.