Benjamin Chase harper is an American singer-songwriter and musician, was born on October 28, 1969 in Claremont, in California’s Inland Empire, to Leonard and Ellen Chase-Verdries, an African American as well as Cherokee and a Jewish ancestry. At the young age of five, his parents divorce and he grew up with the house of his mother. In addition, Harper has two brothers named Joel and Peter. As a child, Harper started on playing the instrument of guitar and at the age of 12, he played his very first gig. In year 1980s, Harper started on to play the slide guitar, copying the style of Robert Johnson. He then processed his style, taking up the Weissenborn. He then broke up the Inland Empire after being asked by Taj Mahal to tour with the artist. At the age of 20, Harper and the blues legend then recorded a song entitled, Follow the Drinking Ghour(d) and then they toured in Hawaii.
In year 1992, Harper recorded the LP called, Pleasure and Pain with Folk multi-instrumentalist Tom Freund. After the said record, he signed a record deal with the Virgin Records, the one who helped him released his first album, which was entitled to, Welcome to the Cruel World in year 1994. The said album was followed by his second album called, Fight for Your Mind in year 1995. The album turned out to be the college radio favorite and included some of the songs he still plays live. In year 1997m he released an album called, The Will to Live, which is the first to feature his backup band called Innocent Criminals.
In year 1999, Harper met Jack Johnson at the Santa Barbara Bowl/. He received a demo tape of twelve of the songs of Johnson that he sent to his producer, J.P. Plunier. Earlier in his career, Harper earned much attention in Europe and was mostly played in Australia. In year 2002, Harper became one of the features singers covering the Motown hits by the Marvin Gaye in the documentary called, Standing the Shadows of Motown. October 2004, he was involved in the Vote for Change concert tour, which has been organized to give benefits for the non profit progressive, called, MoveOn.org, and persuaded the people in the Swing states to vote during the 2004 U.S Presidential election.
On January 2010, Harper made an appearance on the last episode of The Tonight Show together with Conan O’ Brien and Beck as well as Billy Gibbons, performing a Will Ferrell-led version of the Freebird. On the same year, it was said that Harper had formed a band, which was called as the Fistful of Mercy, together with Dhani Harrison and Joseph Arthur. The band has already released their debut record called, As I Call You Down, on October 2010. On February 2011, Harper’s official website declared that the Virgin Records will be releasing their next album called, Give Till It’s Gone.
