Tom Freund has a new album coming out on Friday, September 7: East of Lincoln (Surf Road Records). His decades-old long time friend and collaborator Ben Harper contributed to a couple of the songs on the album and as soon as I heard that I wanted to talk to them together to find out more about this project, and their history together.
When I called them, Freund said he was in Ocean Beach at Fire Island. Harper is on a tour bus an hour north of Santa Cruz, he is about to play two nights at the Catalyst with Charlie Musselwhite.
You have a long history together. Is working together now different from what it was in the 1990’s?
BH: For me in my heart, it feels exactly the same. Any time we collaborate it feels like we pick up right where we left off.
TF: We have more miles under our belt, and more stories, but it is the same root connection. You can hear it on our first album Pleasure and Pain (1992 Cardas Records). There’s a connection and a language that we’ve always had. Whenever we’re in a room together or on a stage it’s the same thing. That’s cool that you said that, B. Because we’re obviously in very different times but that hasn’t changed…..READ MORE