There Will Be A Light - Ben Harper & The Blind Boys Of Alabama > Reviews > Blind Boys see the light

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
Value for Money

Advantages:	Warms the cockles of your soul
Disadvantages:	You need a soul in the first place

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

As the winter months draw in it’s good to tuck oneself on bed with a flask, in a wood cabin, and authentic Deep South gospel blues to warm the cockles of the heart.

This year my musical and spiritual heat is being provided by the soulful hauntings of Ben Harper and The Blind Boys of Alabama with There Will Be A Light.

We are hearing the union of a combination of artists at their peak. The Blind Boys bring the raw Negro Spiritual tradition and decades of blended hymnal harmonising.

Harper and his band bring the stripped down arrangements to vocals aged in oak caskets for generations, soaking up decades and life experience.

As you expect there is variety without vanity. The lonely slide guitar in Dylan cover Well, Well, Well seems to be fighting for empathy whereas accapella lament Mother Pray is touching enough to bring tears to a statue. Dare to feel the fervour.

If anyone knows about life it’s the Blind Boys, having lived through the depression, two world wars and being black in the USA. Despite their lack of optical prowess one gets the feeling they see more than most about what goes on around them.

And to keep their faith in an age when many around them are losing theirs, or using it for their own benefit, shows a thunderous resolve punching their melodies.

There Will Be A Light would be perfect for a coffee advert. It’s mellow, optimistic and you can almost see the sunrise between the chords and the bitter sweet vocals.

The album was recorded after improvision between Ben and The Boys on-stage when the latter opened for the former for three nights in Paris, producing an alchemy of talent

There is very much a jam atmosphere to the album, recorded at Capitol Records’ famous Basement Studio, with the whole eleven songs finished in eight days.

This is both a good and bad thing. We get to embrace the live feel to the tracks and feel the genuine emotion, but I get the feeling this could have been even better given a few weeks more bonding, brimstone and post-tour blues.

Close your eyes, open your ears and see how the blind can see.