Critic's Pick: Tove Lo w/Mallrat

In case you were wondering, I’ve never been a blues purist. The blues albums I value the most — Sonny Boy Williamson’s 1967 More Real Folk Blues and Taj Mahal’s 1992 Taj’s Blues come to mind — tend to be compilations. More Real Folk Blues includes tracks cut between 1957 and 1964, and it isn’t even titled correctly, because it’s a collection of hardcore blues tunes. For singer, songwriter and instrumentalist Ben Harper, blues has been one starting point in a career that’s seen him win three Grammys and collaborate with the likes of Charlie Musselwhite, Mavis Staples and the aforementioned Taj Mahal. What I hear in Harper’s work — he’s been releasing albums for more than 30 years — is a willingness to recast blues as pop music. Like, say, Robert Cray, Harper is as much a soul singer as he is a blues avatar. On Harper’s 2022 album Bloodline Maintenance, he gets into post-Staple Singers funk on “We Need to Talk About It” and sounds like a less ornate Al Green on “Problem Child” and “Honey, Honey.” Harper is a blues-soul-rock eclectic, and he’s good at it. Starting Sept. 14, he settles into a two-night run at The Basement East with his band, the Innocent Criminals. The Sept. 15 show was sold out at press time. 

8 p.m. at The Pinnacle

910 Exchange Lane