A Shot of Hennessy

Ben Harper rocking the stage at Saturday’s concert. (Photo by Morgan Hennessy)

I worship Ben Harper. He’s an incredible lyricist and composer - talented in ways not many recording artists these days can hope to be. And he puts on one hell of a show.

Saturday night at the Tower Theater, my fellow Ben enthusiasts and I paid homage at the alter. The energy of the crowd was overwhelming - and Ben acknowledged it, saying, “I wish I could take you guys to Boston with me,” at the end of the show. See how good it was in the video below (the pictures not that great, but the sound, as usual, is divine):

Some of my most treasured experiences have been concerts shared with close friends and family. Music occupies a central part of my life and I can’t imagine living without it. It’s my soundtrack, my stress relief and my work-out motivation. It wakes me up in the morning and puts me to sleep at night.

But I get the feeling not many Penn students feel the same way. Mostly I just hear complaints about the selections for SPEC events on campus.

Cultivating a taste in music takes work. Short of illegally downloading the new Soulja Boy single (though, wow, does it stir up some serious discussion) on LimeWire, most people our age don’t try hard enough to enrich their musical collections. Everyone needs to find music that stirs the soul. It’s just one of those things. And Britney probably can’t deliver that.

Like everyone else, I’m always trying to find music for free. There are legal ways - none of us want to be one of the 31 who got letters from the RIAA. Raid your parents’ CD collections, ask your foreign friends for mixes, check out the library’s collection. I swear I’ve found some of my favorite albums on library shelves.

Try something new, even if you haven’t heard of the artist - you might be surprised to find you love Miles Davis or Todd Rundgren. Love that song from the new iPod commercial? Listen to more Feist. There’s room on that 30GB iPod, no matter how many techno songs you have crammed onto it.

Check out XPN’s live archives. They also constantly stream music online - it’s a great way to mix up your studying in Van Pelt. Just make sure you keep a list of artists that have caught your…ear? You can also find a list of all the songs played each day online.

Earlier this year a fellow blogger wrote an account of all World Cafe Live has to offer - who could turn down a free live concert? I second his remarks, and after all, it’s not that far of a walk.

Not sure if you want to actually lay down the $9.99 for the album on iTunes? Test-drive it at Rhapsody. Also, Pandora (i.e., “the music genome project”) will offer you less predictable alternatives to Dave Matthews Band.

Take my suggestions and you might find an artist who can change your life and make you think in ways you haven’t thought before - like Ben Harper does for me. We’re in college, after all - we’re supposed to do that kind of hippie crap. Rediscover The Grateful Dead and all that.

Then maybe next time someone asks you what kind of music you like, you’ll have something more interesting to say than “Oh, everything.” I look forward to it.

A Shot of Hennessy appears every Monday and Wednesday.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 23rd, 2007 at 11:51 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.