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This acoustic album is impregnated with the Blues. A Blues transported from the Mississippi Delta to the Inland Empire. A Blues re-rendered through the sound of a lap steel guitar influenced by Chris Darrow and David Lindley — both slide guitarists and natives of Claremont. Influence of Chris Darrow appears in the very first song : Whipping Boy, a song he wrote in 1972. Second song is a traditional Blues entitled Jesus on The Main line. Then, Ben Harper and Tom Freund play covers of Pay The Man (co-written by David Lindley and George 'Baboo' Pierre) and Quarter Of A Man (a sublime song written by Robert 'Frizz' Fuller). These two songs were already gathered in David Lindley's album called El Rayo-X (released 1980). Mama's Got A Girlfriend Now (written by Ben Harper), and Angel From Montgomery (written by John Prine) bring a country music touch to the album. Then album turns into Rock 'n Roll sound with two songs by Tom Freund : Click Yo' Heels and an incredible You Should Have Come To Me. King of the Delta Blues, Robert Johnson, couldn't be left out : ardent covers of Dust My Broom and Sweet Home Chicago precede an already very accomplished version of Pleasure And Pain (a Ben Harper's original).
Ben Harper : "There is a little bit of my parents in my first record. I remember a day at the shop, I had just written my first true song : Pleasure And Pain. All the family gathered around me in the workshop and I sang. There was a very sweet atmosphere in the back shop; a profound joy, a feeling of plenitude. After that our neighbors used to come to our house and listen to my songs. My grandparents and my mother wrote poems which I put in music. Everybody on the block was singing." Tom Freund : "Pleasure and Pain was an intense time. Ben and I really connected on a lot of levels. Sound and healing, tapping into the sounds around us. We had a cool duo and band (which consisted of Rosanne Lindley (David's daughter) and John McKnight who played on Ben's first record). We met in the college town of Claremont, CA. A mutual friend introduced us, Alleghaney Meadows - a ceramic artist, said we must meet eachother and play together. We had a powerful jam the first night at The Folk Music Center that Ben's grandparents owned and Ben worked selling and fixing guitars. Cool as shit store with all sorts of world instruments on the walls and 'spirits' in the air." George Cardas : "I recorded Ben on March 15, 1992 - I was setup to record another performer (Johnny Kallas) who I had been working with for the previous month Johnny called and said he had a sore throat and couldn't make it so we we getting ready to go home for the night when the phone rang it was Ben he said that a friend of his was over at his house, things were really working and he wanted to come over. I don't think at the time he was planning on a recording session about 15 min later Ben and Tom came by. They were quite excited about how well things were going so I sat them down in front of a pair of microphones and they began to play.
We went directly from a pair of custom built microphones into a Studer A-80 there was nothing in the signal path but the two microphones 6 feet of Cardas cable and the Studer not even a preamp other than the single stage in the microphones themselves. This was about as direct a setup as I have ever seen the recording setup was omni's on 8 inch center placed in front and above Tom and Ben abut 3 feet from Ben's chest. Ben and Tom began to play sort of deciding what to play and going for it, all takes were one time only. It took just over 45 minutes to record the album it is to this day one of the most magical musical moments, the kind you dream will happen but never do. I was obvious that this was the "real deal" so I made a record almost immediately we did one run the albums they were awsome so I told Ben to take on to LA and go shopping — he did and the rest is history. I hope some day Ben decides to release the original acoustic sessions."
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