Childhood home

Description

Album entirely acoustic with sounds that are both soul, Californian, folk rock, and American. Ben Harper and his mother, Ellen, collaborated to create Childhood Home, a deeply intimate album composed solely of original songs. On this record, six of the ten tracks were written by Ben, the other four by Ellen, each honestly and generously addressing the subject of family life in all its complexity. In 1958, Ben Harper's maternal grandparents founded The Folk Music Center and Museum in Claremont, California. It is in this place, amidst guitars, banjos, tablas, ukuleles, and many other instruments from around the world, that the family forged its musical identity. Ellen Harper, herself a talented multi-instrumentalist, encouraged her family to make the store (which she still manages) a true musical laboratory. The Folk Center then acted as a magnet for rising artists such as Ry Cooder, David Lindley, or Taj Mahal, who eventually became full members of the family, sharing their views on creativity and philosophy in master classes, a teaching that profoundly influenced young Ben. The songs of Childhood Home are permeated with love, melancholy, and sometimes, pain.