Ben Harper [ tickets ] took up the guitar as a small boy with the guidance of his maternal grandparents at their Claremont, CA, music store, The Folk Music Center and Museum. Emulating Robert Johnson, he began playing slide guitar as a teen, a path that eventually led him to his signature instrument, the Weissenborn lap steel guitar.

By 2003, he was already playing packed arenas in Europe with his band The Innocent Criminals, and French Rolling Stone had named him Artist of the Year. In 2005, he won a Grammy Award for "There Will Be Light" a gospel album collaboration with The Blind Boys of Alabama [ tickets ].

Harper recently formed a new group dubbed Relentless7. Fans in
California will have a chance to check out the new sound when Harper begins a brief tour of his home state next month.

Contributing photographer Tim Mosenfelder caught Ben Harper and The Innocent Criminals at San Francisco's Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival this summer and here are some of his shots.