Nick Harper

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Thought I'd give Nick Harper a mention. I saw him in 2003 at a music festival and he completely blew me away: in fact I promptly went and bought his entire back catalogue as soon as I got home. I've seen him a handful of times since then and every gig has been wonderful.

Nick is a singer-songwriter-guitarist but likely to be very different to what you've seen before. Think or someone with a vocal range approaching that to that of Jeff Buckley (possibly beyond on the falsetto) and as good with a guitar as Page or Hendrix (have a listen to Watching the Stars on his myspace page - link below).

Nick is the son of the legendary 60's folk nutter Roy Harper (remember the Led Zeppelin song about him?) and grew up with the likes of Page and Plant hanging around the house, so there's some interesting first hand musical influences. Like his father, he's chosen to shun the major labels and publish his records himself. As a result he gets more creative freedom but doesn't get the airplay and other backing that he get with someone else's money behind him

Anyway - he's doing his best at self promotion at the moment. He will be doing a number of free gigs and signing copies of his new album at various records shops around the country (links on myspace below). As well as that, on Sunday he will be releasing his first ever single on iTunes only (he's only done EPs and albums before), called Blue Sky Thinking. All proceeds will be going to the Love, Hope, Strength Foundation, an anti cancer charity.

http://www.myspace.com/harperspace
 
The live version of In Our Time is certainly incredible. I could take or leave the studio version though.

His best recorded songs tend to be the minimalist ones - Acoustic guitar and a few backing vocals if anything (prefer his recent tendency to use guest vocalists than record his own). That way I suppose there's less to go wrong with the production. From his last album (Treasure Island) Bloom and Real Life stand out for me. Can't say I agree on the lyrics, I find them pretty engaging but he does tend to write on some random subjects. Guess his political leanings won't be to everyone's taste either.

For anyone wanting somewhere to start I'd definitely recommend catching him live or giving the live Double Life album a listen. He recently released a DVD, Love is Music, which is pretty good as well.
 
Single's out. Only 79p. Search for 'Blue Sky Thinking' on iTunes.

Absolutely mindblowing fingerpicked guitar work . Maybe a bit emo by his standards but I love it.
 
Just nicked this from my post on another thread but might be handy for someone:

Nick's doing some free gigs in record shops to promote his new album. Would highly recommend checking him out if you can make it.

4 Jun 2007 13:00 Fopp instore (Cardiff) Cardiff, Wales
4 Jun 2007 17:00 Fopp instore (Bristol) Bristol, Southwest
5 Jun 2007 18:30 Sound Knowledge instore (Marlborough) Marlborough, Wilts, Southwest
6 Jun 2007 13:00 Kaleidoscope instore (St. Helens) St. Helens, Northwest
6 Jun 2007 16:30 Vinyl Exchange instore (Manchester) Manchester, Northwest
7 Jun 2007 13:00 Jacks instore (Sheffield) Sheffield
7 Jun 2007 17:00 Fopp instore (Nottingham) Nottingham, Midlands
8 Jun 2007 12:30 Jibbering instore (Birmingham) Birmingham, Midlands
8 Jun 2007 18:00 Fopp instore (London) London, London and South East

Edit: Jampy mentioned a broken string: here's one for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwKTDegcFBA
 
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