While the name Ben Harper is certainly a familiar one to our readers, blues harmonica legend Charlie Musselwhite, whom the singer-songwriter has teamed up with for his latest studio album, may not be. Born in Mississippi in 1944, Musselwhite is considered to be one of the two most important artists to emerge from the “white blues movement” of the late 1960′s, alongside Paul Butterfield. Musselwhite moved to Chicago from Memphis in search of higher paying factories, ingraining himself the city’s blues scene and playing alongside the likes of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Buddy Guy and John Lee Hooker.

Thanks in part to the success of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Musselwhite was signed to Vanguard Records, releasing his debut album Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite’s South Side Band in 1966. The album was one of the first blues records to be marketed towards rock fans and is considered one of the most influential albums in bridging the gap between rock and blues audiences. Today the formidable duo, who first met back in 1997 during a session with John Lee Hooker, will release Get Up! via the legendary Stax label. The ten-track effort combines what Harper and Musselwhite do best, mixing blues, gospel, roots and R&B.

Let’s take a look at the video for the album’s first single I Don’t Believe A Word You Say…

Harper and Musslewhite will team up for a series of shows together this Spring, which include an album release show tonight at New York City’s Irving Plaza and a high profile appearance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

Tom Morello is no stranger to the world of using music in the context of social and political activism, both as the guitarist for Rage Against The Machine and by releasing folkie, Woody Guthrie-inspired protest tunes under the moniker The Nightwatchman. Earlier this year, Morello released his third solo effort World Wide Rebel Songs, an album whose cover is a nod to Phil Ochs’ Gunfight At Carnegie Hall.  For World Wide Rebel Songs, Morello eschewed the guy and guitar approach of his previous efforts, in favor of a full backing band. Morello recently stopped by the Tonight Show, where he was was joined by Ben Harper on lap steel, who appears on the album, for this performance of Save The Hammer For The Man. Let’s check it out…

Neil Young’s Ohio, made famous by Crosby Stills Nash & Young, is a protest song referencing the horrible events at Kent State University on May 4th, 1970 that left four dead and nine injured. Recorded just three weeks after the fact, it was pressed to single and rushed to radio stations with the B-Side Find The Cost of Freedom.

The Contestants:

Artist: Anders Osborne & Big Chief Monk Boudreaux
Album: Bury the Hatchet
The Skinny: HT favorite Anders Osborne leads off this week’s Cover Wars with this studio acoustic rendition and a little help form Big Chief Monk Boudreaux.

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A live electric version from Osborne and his band:

READ ON

Since the beginning of the aughts Ben Harper has released albums with The Blind Boys Of Alabama, Relentless7 and Fistful Of Mercy as well as his longtime band The Innocent Criminals. Tomorrow, Harper will return to the “solo” format with the release of his tenth studio effort, Give Till It’s Gone. The 11-track record features an appearance from Ringo Starr, who co-wrote and drums on Spilling Faith and Get There From Here, while Jackson Browne lends his vocal talents to the track Pray That Our Love Sees The Dawn.

Harper recently released this animated video for the record’s radio-friendly first single, Rock ‘N Roll Is Free. Take a look…

Ben Harper – Rock ‘N Roll Is Free

Ben Harper & Relentless7 – Shimmer & Shine

Have you ever wondered just how to categorize bands like Okkervil River, The Hold Steady and M. Ward? Thanks to the fine folks at NPR we now have a new sub-genre for our music labeling pleasure with the introduction of the phrase – Smart Rock – into our lexicon. Smart Rock is defined as “music that appeals to a discerning, educated audience and often mellow yet complex” – so pretty much 80% of the music that currently resides on my iPod. You may be a fan of the genre already, check out NPR’s Top Ten Smart Rock Albums of the year and find out if it’s up your alley.

• List Time: Spin’s Top 5 San Fran bands
• AD kicks down a killer Flying Burrito Brothers show from 1969
• Cover Alert: Noah &  The Whale tackle Daniel Johnson
• Muzzle Of Bees pays tribute to Milwaukee’s Atomic Records
• JamBase reviews the Relentless 7 at the Belly Up
• Trey shares his favorite memories about The Spectrum

Finally, if you’re looking for the perfect gift for the festival loving music fan in your life look no further than the Live From Bonnaroo 2008 DVD which will hit stores in January. The DVD, which was originally an exclusive for those who bought tickets to the fest, is currently available for pre-order for the low, low price of $16.99 and includes performances from the likes of The Raconteurs, Broken Social Scene, My Morning Jacket and Pearl Jam. The trailer is currently streaming on the ‘Roo’s website for your viewing pleasure.

Last week, soulful guitar slinger Ben Harper sneakily revealed his new band by launching a website for the project called the Relentless Seven. The bare bones website features just the band member’s names, a handful of tour dates along with three streaming songs for your listening pleasure. The tracks on the site include covers of Prince’s Purple Rain and Led Zeppelin’s Good Times, Bad Times and a blistering ten minute plus original: Serve Your Soul.

The Relentless Seven will hit the road for a five date California tour, with a promise on their site of more dates to come in 2009.

If you’re not fortunate enough to live out in Cali to catch Ben’s new band, than maybe you can make it out to one of these recently announced tours…

• Q-Tip teams up with The Cool Kids for the 2K Sports Bounce Tour (begins: 11/18)
• Alt.country singer Kathleen Edwards heads out early next year (begins: 01/30)
• Hot hipster band Cut Copy line up an ’09 headlining tour (begins: 03/01)
• Indie-popster Annuals hit the road in support of their sophomore effort (begins: 01/20)
• ’80s metal legends Motely Crue put together a lengthy NA tour (begins: 02/02)
• Grace Potter & The Nocturnals stretch their tour through the end of the year (begins: 11/18)

Finally, Yonder Mountain String Band will be hitting the road this coming February for another installment of their now annual Cabin Fever Tour. The bluegrass revivalists will focus their 21 date run on cities across the Southern part of the country with five shows spread throughout Florida. Those who order tickets from the band’s exclusive pre-sale will receive one free live Yonder song download that’s redeemable via the band’s llive download site. Act now as the pre-sale ends this coming Saturday.

MCA of the Beastie Boys is breaking into the virtual world, where he will be a character in the new Tony Hawk video game. Tony Hawk: Proving Ground will be released in October, and if you are good enough at the game you’ll be able to unlock MCA’s character. Jewish skateboarders…what will they think of next?

We ain’t just Beastie X Games…we’ve got plenty of other news to report:

• The Rolling Stones’ Bigger Bang World Tour came to an end last night in London after an incredible 146 performances
• The Cure have delayed their plans to tour North America in the fall
• Coachella 2008 will take place April 25th- 27th [via thedailyswarm]
• Ben Harper lists his favorite bands for the New York Times
• Rage Against The Machine packed Alpine Valley
• The Playlist talks to Royal Mountain Band about playing The Band in the new Dylan biopic, I’m Not There
• Bright Eyes will be touring this fall
• Part II of Randy Ray’s interview with Trey Anastasio and Tom Marshall
• Grace Potter and the Nocturnals recently stopped by WXPN’s World Cafe for an interview and performance
• Pitchfork interviews Daryl Hall…seriously
• Hometracked lists 10 Recording Bloopers That Made The Album [via Largehearted Boy]
• Check out some of these photos from Van Halen — hey, assless chaps!
• Herbie Hancock talks to the Chicago Sun-Times about why he recorded an album of Joni Mitchell’s music
• Tour dates from the Disco Biscuits, including Halloween in Boston
• AC/DC is releasing a three-DVD set on October 16th, a compilation featuring both Bon Scott and Brian Johnson on lead vox

And as usual on Mondays, read on after the jump for a full slate of setlists from the weekend, including but not limited to Arcade Fire, Black Crowes, Kings of Leon, Rage, Ratt, RAQ, TLG, Umphrey’s, Wilco and many more…

Breaking out the oft-employed Cleveland Rocks Clause, allow us to produce some fantastic Forest City shots from our friends at Christian James Photos. A handful of quality shows have rolled through the House of Blues in C-Town (don’t ever call it that) lately, and our Midwest shutterbug Chris has been front and center waiting for close-ups of open pores and sweat drips.

Newly appointed guitar wizard Ben Harper’s been just about everywhere lately: the Bonnaroo SuperJam, the National Anthem during the Game 3 of the NBA Finals, my most vividly erotic dreams. The night he played the Anthem at the Cavs-Spurs game he also showed up for a gig at the House of Blues, where the Cleveland Scene blog filed a full report (with no real conclusion either way).

Little Feat played the same venue a week earlier, and while the post-Lowell George era of this band is not everything it once was, they’ve made a nice career out of making peopel question whether they play funk-rock, funk-rock or funkrock.

So let’s take a look at a couple of sweet photo galleries from Chris of Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals and Little Feat in Cleveland, which I hear rocks.

?uestlove‘s gotta be one tired motherfucker right now. Bonnaroo’s Man of the Match anchored three separate bands and logged countless hours on the festival’s various stages down in the dusty heat of Manchester, Tennessee.

HT Hip Hop Correspondent J-Cantor ain’t tired, though. He’s been combing the ol’ information superhighway for any information he can find about ?uestlove’s festival performances, be it with The Roots, The Philadelphia Experiment or the SuperJam with Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones and Ben Harper.

JC just alerted us to ?uestlove’s MySpace page, which documents the drummer’s tiredness and features an incredible behind-the-scenes video of the weekend’s powerest trio rehearsing together for the first time. There’s been less than 600 views as of post time, so you probably haven’t seen this — check out this cool clip of the three musicians feeling each other out at the Holiday Inn:

• ?uestlove, John Paul Jones and Ben Harper rehearsal footage
• Click here for a nine-minute clip of the SuperJam in action
• Click here for many more YouTube videos from Bonnaroo 2007 

A mix of young bands and old favorites greeted our intrepid field reporter on Day Three of Bonnaroo. The oppressive heat and the aggressive rock must be difficult to endure for another two days, but sure enough, everyone we’ve been talking to down there is still at full tilt, all systems go. I’m exhausted just typing this post. Better men.

TJ has weighed in on the Day Three festivities, and his text follows below. Remember to check back tomorrow for TJ’s Day Four Overview and eventual wrap-up…

I opened my day Saturday with The American Babies. I don’t know Brothers Past, but I like the work of Scott Metzger on guitar and Joe Russo on drums a lot, so I wanted to check this out. The Babies played a really upbeat early set with a number of songs that really stood out as being assembled with care. It’s apparent that these guys put a lot into the music they’ve created together, which is surprising considering they’re a fairly new invention. They have a new album out that I think I might check out.

I started thinking after the show how it seemed back in the old days, pop artists would use a side project to explore new, often improvisational or out-of-character material. Today, it seems, some of the luminaries of the “jam” scene are finding outlets where they can create real songs without the expectations of extended solos and multiple tempo changes. And I think that’s cool.

We’ve been conditioned for 15 years to reject radio-friendly music out of hand for being too commercial or popular. Bands like the American Babies (and I can’t tell you if they’re a side project or not; I guess time will decide that) might really help us all re-evaluate how we classify and consider both the music we listen to and the music we don’t.

Read on after the jump for much more from Day Three at Bonnaroo, including the pictured Hot Tuna, The Police, Ben Harper & John Paul Jones, Galactic and others — oh, and we’ve got some videos from the festival as well…

Keller Williams and Michael Franti will descend upon the same location this weekend, which can only mean one thing: There’s a festival goin’ down.

The Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival kicks off four days of festival mayhem on Thursday, and we’d like to begin our coverage with a look at some of the bigger conflicts on the schedule. Tough decisions are inevitable at any festival, especially one like Bonnaroo that has music playing constantly on or in its 76 stages, tents, outhouses, vestibules, phone booths and kiosks. And considering this year’s lineup is riddled with insane talent, the conflicts seem to pop up every hour.

Do you check out ?uestlove’s afro-pick or Lily Allen’s rack? Bob Weir’s short shorts or Wolfmother’s hype? Hula hoops at SCI or heady crystals at STS9? To help you make these calls, we’ve asked longtime Ace associate, TJ, who’s headed down to Tennessee tomorrow night for a glimpse of the madness, to weigh in with what he believes to be the 11 most difficult time-slot decisions of the festival.

TJ will be covering this festival for us all weekend with live reports from the field, so make sure to check back every 10 to 12 minutes for the next few days…

Thursday
Rodrigo y Gabriela vs. Tea Leaf Green
TJ says: Despite the incredible job RyG could do on Graham Nash’s Immigration Man, I see them getting their visas stamped but falling to the Green regardless.

Friday
Tortoise vs. The Richard Thompson Band
TJ says: Both eclectic, both underrated. The time slot dictates this one –- at 2 am I go Tortoise; but, this 2 pm slot is Richard Thompson all the way.

Kings of Leon vs. Gillian Welch
TJ says: I dig the Kings, but trendy hipster bands are a dime a dozen at Bonnaroo this year. There’s only one Gillian Welch and one David Rawlings on the lineup.

The Roots vs. The Black Keys
TJ says: I’d like to say I was representin’ OH and pick the boys from Akron , but Ohio doesn’t really claim Akron anyway. The Roots will allow you to get yo funk on like few bands at the festival this year, which is nice. Hell, this slot’s so packed I may call an audible at the line and pull a split-squad session with Lily Allen and Manu Chao.

SCI vs. STS9
TJ says: Thank God for SuperJam. Seriously.

Read on for TJ’s biggest conflicts (and winners) on Saturday and Sunday…