In February of 2004 soul-jammer Ben Harper made a flurry of promotional appearance in France and New York. Parisians got treated to a Feb. 13 interview-only spot at RTL2 Studios, a Feb 14 half-hour mini-set on “Europe 2 Live” at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy and the “Maison De La Radio” show that’s documented here (all were aired over the radio and webcasted). Back home in the states Harper popped up on the Letterman show Feb. 18, “Last Call With Carson Daly” also on the 18th and the Conan O’Brien show on the 20th. Curiously, Harper did not have a new album he was promoting at the time; his last record appeared in March of 2003, Diamonds On The Inside. He had also been absent from the road for most of that year.
It would have been nice if Lost Dogs had pulled together all of this material as it would have made a tidy two-disc set. Instead, the label has only compiled about two-thirds of the Paris radio show concert. The additional songs were:
Gold To Me, Show Me A Little Shame, Steal My Kisses, Amen Omen, Burn One Down, I Shall Not Walk Alone (acoustic), Everything, With My Own Two Hands/War
That small complaint aired, this is an outstanding sounding disc, and it includes most of Harper’s acoustic encores (Power Of The Gospel, Walk Away, When It's Good) too. The artwork is striking as well, a purple motif with a wealth of excellent color photos spread across a 4-panel booklet and 2-sided tray panel. Ben Harper is the Lost Dogs’ label’s fledgling release, and other artists covered thus far have included broadcasts of Norah Jones and Belle And Sebastian, so clearly the label is going for the alternative and/or “World Café”-oriented fan. A nice trend I'd like to see continued, even though one wonders how commercially viable similar releases may turn out to be in the long run. I'm sure everyone remembers the glut of alterna-boots from the mid '90s after all the European labels went out of business. -- OSWALD
