Album Review: Ben Harper & Charlie Musselwhite - Get Up!

How many albums will Ben Harper release in 2013? It seriously seems like the guy doesn't stop. Playing two sets at Byron Bluesfest over Easter, Ben will play one completely solo, and one with the most notorious and badass harmonica player the world has ever seen: Charlie Musselwhite.

Get Up! is a blues record. It is music made the way God intended it to be made. It is close to perfection, even if you aren't a massive Ben Harper fan. Is it the fact that the album was released on Stax? The Memphis label put out some of the most revered records of all time, by Booker T & The MG's, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and many, many more. Harper is one of the new wave of Stax artists, and this is one to go down in the record books.

Harper is best known for his slide guitar, but there isn't a lot of it on Get Up!. There is definitely plenty of his general acoustic styling, but with Musselwhite playing melodies alongside his vocals, Harper doesn't need to do anything fancy. It's a very stripped down project in general – sometimes there's no drum kit at all, and sometimes no bass: just two friends, Charlie and Ben, talking to each other with music, sharing their stories.

Every song here is brilliant – you can put it on repeat and not even realise as it's all so deep and enthralling. Song highlights include You Found Another Lover (I Lost Another Friend), opener Don't Look Twice, and the long title track Get Up!, but this special album is best experienced in its entirety.