Talk:Ben Harper

most talented
ben harper is probally the best and most talented musician of the 90s i mean the man does it all he is the next bob marley

wife
There was no need to drop the sentence about his wife from the previous revision -- Aminul Islam

Ukulele
I saw Ben Harper at the Claremont Folk Music Center's open mic night last Sunday in May. He's pretty good at playing soprano/concert uke, and a pretty down-to-earth guy (we both helped put the chairs back afterwards, I had also performed). It might be interesting to catalogue the various musical instruments that Mr. Harper can play, besides his speciality in slide guitar. dreddnott 22:54, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Somebody erased all of the contents of this talk page. Reverted. dreddnott 01:38, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

mr diversity
i know ben harper is an extremely diverse musician and im hoping someone whos knowledgeable about all his musical projects can put on here all the different styles and genres he encompasses and not to mention he has a large following within the jam band scene.Curefreak 00:02, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Ben Harper is crazy on the guitar, regardless of what kind. I love watching him play even though I'v only seen him play once.Hope. 01:48, 6 July 2006 (UTC)hope.


 * I like his guitar playing, but he can't really play lead. He has a lead guitarist in his band to play solos, because Ben can't really solo well. The alternate tunings he uses may have something to do w/ that, but I really think there are a lot of better guitar players in the scene than Ben. His slide work is pretty rudimentary (listen to Derek Trucks and compare). He's a better singer than he is a guitarist. That intro to "Ground On Down" is suprisingly easy to play.


 * It's his ability to play complex riffs and sing complex vocals I admire most. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.33.151.146 (talk) 19:13, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Nothing mentioned here about his musical style
Adding a section on this would be a big step towards improving this article. AppleJuggler 03:24, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

His First Marriage
He also has a kid by his first marriage, and I believe he has another child by his second marriage. ^^;; Last time I saw him at least.--Hitsuji Kinno 16:13, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

Fair use criteria
The use of images not in compliance with our fair-use criteria or our policy on nonfree content is not appropriate, and the images have been removed. Please do not restore them. — Save_Us _ 229  21:43, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

POV recent concerts
"The huge crowd in and around the massive tent were treated to an awesome set featuring songs from old and new albums as well as some covers." is heavily POV. I think the whole section should be removed as it is untypical for Wikipedia articles on artists, provides little informational value, does not use formal language, and words such as "huge", "best" and "treated to" occur.--Ruben (talk) 16:07, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Requested move
The article should not have been moved to Benjamin Chase Harper. Per Naming conventions (people) (e.g. 50 Cent not Curtis James Jackson III) - Notability is also a factor. The large majority of people searching for Ben Harper in the encyclopedia are looking for this artist, and the article's title should reflect that, and point to a disambiguation page for the cases where this is not the Ben Harper being searched for. Ben Harper should not need to be either a redirect or a disambiguation page. Brando130 (talk) 19:36, 3 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Support. Since Ben Harper already redirects to this page, I don't see why this article can't just exist there instead. I agree with the above statement that the other Ben Harpers all seem to be somewhat less notable. Terraxos (talk) 03:13, 6 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Page moved per discussion. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance. -GTBacchus(talk) 02:48, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

Needs Some Grammatical work.
"As a teen Harper in the 80's, Harper began to play the slide guitar..." ? >> take out the first Harper, or is this some reference I'm not familiar with?

Also, "toured the fiftieth state." Should that be "toured the fifty states"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gibsepisg (talk • contribs) 04:40, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Also, "broke out of the Inland Empire." Is langauge like this really the clearest way to say he started playing further away from his hometown? I guess the text is taken straight from the source book mentioned in the footnotes, where it probably makes more sense. Also, the name "Inland Empire" will probably be unknown to most non-American readers.84.198.246.199 (talk) 17:03, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

came here to write exactly that. the sentence "Harper escaped from the Inland Empire after being offered an invitation by Taj Mahal to tour with the artist" is meaningless at the moment.

duncanrmi (talk) 08:34, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

Hello!!
My name is ben harper, and im hot!! year.. :)oh.. okay im not ben harper, but I like him very mutch.. Loves Benjamin harper —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.81.137.38 (talk) 09:28, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

Blue Eyed Soul
Black musicians can't be classified as singing blue-eyed soul. -_- --Obf213 (talk) 15:59, 22 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Actually, I'm not sure that he wouldn't qualify-- he is half Caucasian, after all! :) Who knows? --Leahtwosaints (talk) 22:59, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

Redirect requested
Would someone with the knowledge to do so set things up so that Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals redirects to this page? Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bwanderson (talk • contribs) 07:10, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

First time seeing a performance from Ben Harper and his band -- excellent!
I was watching Mr. Harper for the first time on KTEH TV San Francisco just now. Love the articulate Harper's music, the band's diverse sound and vocal harmonies, the songwriting, performing, and singing -- but on this show he focused on his non-guitar talents and showed no great technical proficiency on the instrument. So, impressive as his musical CV is, and as nice as his slide guitar is, I'll have to agree with the comments above. He uses a very talented Stratocaster lead guitar player. Harper and his band moved smoothly from a very soulful country sound through straight-ahead country to folk to "It's a black rain a-gonna fall" to a moving rendition of Marvin Gaye's "Make Me Wanna Holler." Some guitarists, though talented lead guitar players, choose to forego showcasing guitar skills. I plan to keep watching him and buy some of his music. Watch him on and judge for yourself. I found him on a couple of Youtubes with the Funk Brothers, singing Marvin Gaye in his own style. I've heard him on slide guitar -- but his great instrument is his voice.

DonL (talk) 08:47, 21 March 2010 (UTC) Hi -- I'm not really sure how to do this, but I just wanteed to point out that there's a Matisyahu album in the discography (Live at Twist & Shout) -- Ben never played on that album. Just an FYI. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.67.102.29 (talk) 21:31, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Ben Harper discography
A split has been proposed and stuck into a table. I don't think this is necessary, and would like to remove the tag/edit. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 06:06, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

IMDB resource, film Narrator
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1326905/ White Wash release date: 9 September 2011 (USA) 97.87.29.188 (talk) 23:22, 7 November 2011 (UTC)

False Sources
The claim that his great grandmother was a Russian-Lithuanian Jew isn't backed up by the references.

The family tree is here: http://aronoff.com/family/i0014024.htm http://aronoff.com/family/i0014033.htm#i14033 (Both links are done by a cousin of the family, though distant).

Bess Aronoff Udin was from Dagda, which was part of Lithuania and Latvia at different times. Died at 103, Had 3 children. There is a video of her somewhere on youtube... though I haven't found it yet. (I was told by my relatives)

Albert Udin, as far as I know was Russian. (Ancestry.com places him as being in Kiev with his sister.) Udin came from Yudin, meaning Jew.

This makes Dot Udin, his grandmother Russian-Latvian (sometimes Lithuanian) Jew.--76.169.131.0 (talk) 16:38, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

The Innocent Criminals
Hi, this is my first attempt on contributing text.

Consider striking: "Formerly of: The Innocent Criminals" on the Ben Harper page. Consider replacing with "Member of: Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals" (similar to how Tom Petty was listed as member of "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers").

"Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals" is notable enough to either have their own page, or expanded section on "Ben Harper" page. For instance, I came to wikipedia to look up how the band lineup has changed.

"Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals" played November 25, 1994 in Seattle and the lineup was: Ben Harper Juan Nelson, Leon Mobley, and Oliver Charles. https://www.benharper.com/tour/setlists/1994/1994-11-25-rkcndy

"Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals" played September 23, 2024 in Sacramento, California and the lineup was: Ben Harper, Oliver Charles, Chris Joyner, Alex Painter, Darwin Johnson. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mpers (talk • contribs) 17:56, 24 September 2023 (UTC)

Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals redirects here, but the article doesn't mention the band's name once. Is there any reason for this and can this be incorporated into the article? —sroc &#x1F4AC; 01:16, 16 July 2014 (UTC)


 * Feel free to incorporate it, the band itself is not notable enough to warrant its own page, hence the redirect. Karst 14:41, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

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Neofolk
I have suggested a citation needed for tagging Ben Harper's style as Neofolk. He's not from an Industrial background, nor does he incorporate Industrial elements into his sound, as far as I have heard — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.29.69.77 (talk) 19:30, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

Also an actor (as of 2023)
Should we add that, as of 2023, he is also an actor, having appeared as an actor in Extrapolations (TV series)? 173.88.246.138 (talk) 21:56, 6 August 2023 (UTC)