RollingStone
Meet Fistful of Mercy: Harper, Arthur and Harrison

In February, when Ben Harper, Joseph Arthur and Dhani Harrison arrived at the Carriage House studio in Los Angeles’ Silverlake neighborhood, they had three days booked and zero songs to record. “I thought I was going there to add some guitars or harmonies on Joseph’s album,” says Harrison, who was invited to the session by Harper, whom he befriended at a skate park in Santa Monica. “When I got to the studio, I saw Joe and asked, ‘What songs are we going to do?’ He said we hadn’t written them yet.” After three long days, the trio had recorded the nine acoustic tracks that make up As I Call You Down — and called themselves Fistful of Mercy, after the track of the same name. “I never thought we’d pull off an entire album, [I thought] maybe we’d get an EP,” says Harper, who credits Arthur as the catalyst who pushed for three songs a day. “The three of us were able to create something we never could have done on our own.”

With three acoustic guitars and three microphones, the team worked out musical arrangements, and then retreated to different corners of the studio to write. “We were each others’ lyric police,” says Arthur. ( “It was very ‘Wilbury’ style,” says Harrison, whose late father George was a member of the Travelin’ Wilburys.) Many times, Harrison threw out lyrical themes for inspiration. “Things Go ‘Round” is a throwback to John Lennon’s “Instant Karma,” imagining a world where people are immediately accountable for their actions. When Harrison called for a blues number, the trio quickly drafted “My Father’s Son.” Says Arthur: “It’s really about the three of our voices, and the harmonies. We’re basically singing together the whole time.”

With nine acoustic and vocal tracks completed, Harrison was determined to ratchet the music up to another level. He instinctively called the legendary session drummer Jim Keltner, an old family friend. “I’d never done anything that I thought was worthy of calling Jim,” says Harrison. “We had an emotional conversation on the phone, and he heard some of the stuff we’d done, and he said he’d do it.” Keltner overdubbed percussion, Arthur added bass, and Harper (who calls Keltner the “Dalai Lama of the drums”) added some slide guitar. “These guys are so talented,” says Harrison of his bandmates, who will all hit the road together in October. “I can’t believe I get to call them my musical brothers.”


YT VIDEO: Fistful of Mercy performing "Restore Me" on KCRW
Above, watch Fistful of Mercy — Ben Harper, Joseph Arthur and Dhani Harrison — perform “Restore Me” in the studio at the Los Angeles public radio station KCRW. The band, fans of the station, chose it for this debut.


(from Rolling Stone)

Fistful Of Mercy Album Gets A Major Launch

FISTFUL OF MERCY – the special side project featuring BEN HARPER, JOSEPH ARTHUR AND DHANI HARRISON -- has some important "friends" helping out for the launch of their new album.

First, an eBlast about the band has been sent out to the entire BEATLES database of over 84 million people, giving them information about the project and a taste of the music.

Second, STARBUCKS is poised to launch its brand-new STARBUCKS DIGITAL NETWORK tied-in with its website and Wi-Fi network of over 6,700 locations. This new lifestyle/social network initiative will spotlight music, among other things, and FISTFUL OF MERCY has been chosen as the inaugural music act that they are using to launch the network. Everyone who logs in to STARBUCKS’ site or their nationwide Wi-Fi system will be given a main-page offer to get two FISTFUL OF MERCY tracks and a video.

More about the STARBUCKS DIGITAL NETWORK will be revealed next week when it launches.

The song "Father’s Son" from the "As I Call You Down" album is already climbing the charts at Triple A radio.

(from All Access Music Group)

Musique : Le nouvel album du groupe de Ben Harper, Fistful of Mercy

Vous aimez Ben Harper ? Découvrez le groupe Fistful of Mercy qu'il a crée avec Joseph Arthur et Dhani Harrison. Le premier album du groupe, intitulé As I call you down, arrive dans vos bacs comme un cadeau de Noël.

Annoncé en août 2010, le super-groupe formé par Ben Harper, Joseph Arthur et Dhani Harrison, le fils de l'ex-Beatles George Harrison, devrait sans nul doute créer l'évènement en cette fin d'année avec la sortie du premier album, As I Call You Down, prévue le 29 novembre chez Pias. La formation baptisée Fistful of Mercy se produira également à guichets fermés le 5 décembre 2010 à la Cigale à Paris.

Les trois musiciens ont retenu neuf titres aux sonorités style folk, blues et country pour cet opus. Le morceau qui porte le nom de l'album avait été dévoilé sur scène pour la première fois fin août lors de la soirée Voices for Justice en présence d'Eddie Vedder, Patti Smith et Johnny Depp au Center Music Hall à Little Rock aux Etats-Unis. Dans la lignée de Crosby, Stills & Nash, le trio gagnant dévoile une alchimie musicale et vocale saluée par les critiques et le public à l'étranger, notamment aux Etats-Unis.

Le groupe se produira en France à guichets fermés lors d'un concert unique le 5 décembre 2010 à la Cigale à Paris.

(from Cosmopolitan France)

Anteprime esclusive: ascolta 'As I Call You Down' il primo album dei Fistful of Mercy

I tre suoneranno in Italia il 9 dicembre all'Alcatraz di Milano e il 10 dicembre al Vox di Nonantola (MO)

Ben Harper lo conoscete tutti, Dhani Harrison è figlio di un certo George Harrison e Joseph Artur è un fantastico musicista scoperto da Peter Gabriel in tempi non sospetti. In un solo anno, il 2010, i tre supermusicisti sono passati dall'apparire come un progetto molto hot, almeno sulla carta, ad essere i Fistful of Mercy, una delle realtà più credibili del panorama blues rock uscite quest'anno.

L’album di debutto dei Fistful of Mercy As I Call You Down è una straordinaria lezione di collaborazione, realizzata da tre musicisti di fama mondiale, ed è composto da nove canzoni scritte in tre giorni. Le parti migliori comprendono la ritmata e acustica title track, la scatenata jam session di ‘Father’s Son’ e la tenera psichedelia di Restore Me.

Per chi non volesse perderseli dal vivo, i tre arriveranno in Italia per un paio di date il 9 dicembre all'Alcatraz di Milano e il 10 dicembre al Vox di Nonantola (MO).

Godeteveli in streaming esclusivo e limitato fino al 30 novembre a questo link

(from Rolling Stone Italia)