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Ben Harper is an American musician of the 1990s and 2000s.

Harper, who is Black and Jewish, began playing guitar as a child in his hometown of Claremont (in California's Inland Empire). He eventually specialized in the acoustic slide guitar (Weissenborn guitars). As a young man, he recorded an LP (Pleasure and Pain) with fellow folk guitarist Tom Freund. After this limited edition record, Harper got a record deal with Virgin Records, who released his debut album, Welcome to the Cruel World (1994).

This was followed by the incindiary Fight For Your Mind (1995) which became a college radio favorite and generated an abundance of songs which still fill his set list to this day.

In 1999 at the Santa Barbara Bowl, Harper met Jack Johnson, who was unknown at the time and had not recorded. Harper obtained a demo tape of 12 of Johnson's songs that he forwarded to his producer, J.P. Read more about ...