Singer-Songwriter Ben Harper was just a kid in his family's record store when he first discovered Charlie Musselwhite's harmonica playing. This past Tuesday, they released an album together called Get Up!.
The two musicians came by NPR West to talk with Morning Edition Host Steve Inskeep about making the album and its influences.
Musselwhite told Inskeep he considered himself a factory worker until blues great Muddy Waters invited him on stage one night at a club - even though he was much younger than the rest of the musicians who hung around there. Suddenly, he saw harmonica playing as a ticket out of the factory. Harper told Inskeep about his inspiration for writing one song on the album, "We Can't End This Way," and playing it at an anit-Walmart protest in downtown Los Angeles.
The guys even had a little love duet to show for NPR. If you look closely at the photo, you can see Ben is sporting a few I Heart NPR buttons on his jacket that he got the last time he was in.
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