The Will to Live an album by Ben Harper

Ben Harper

Benjamin Chase "Ben" Harper is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Harper plays an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae and rock music and is known for his guitar-playing skills, vocals, live performances and activism. Harper's fan base spans several continents...

 which showed his continuing folk-centric focus, while at the same time expanding on his rock talents. This was the second album with the Innocent Criminals (uncredited), and was packaged with a special bonus CD in certain countries.

The record would yield his first UK Top 75 single, "Faded". To date it remains his only UK single entry.

Track listing

All songs written by Ben Harper except as noted.

1. "Faded" – 4:48
2. "Homeless Child" – 3:51
3. "Number Three" – 1:43
4. "Roses from My Friends" – 6:23
5. "Jah Work" – 4:54
6. "I Want to Be Ready" – 4:02
7. "The Will to Live" – 4:57
8. "Ashes" – 3:52
9. "Widow of a Living Man" – 4:10
10. "Glory & Consequence" – 5:40
11. "Mama's Trippin'" (Harper, Plunier) – 3:45
12. "I Shall Not Walk Alone" – 5:13

Personnel

• Ben Harper - guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  , saz
  Baglama
  thumb|180px|Cura and bağlamaThe bağlama is a stringed musical instrument shared by various cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean, Near East, and Central Asia....
  
  , vocals
  Singing
  Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
  
  , weissenborn
  Weissenborn
  Weissenborn or H. Weissenborn is a brand of lap slide guitar manufactured by Hermann Weissenborn in Los Angeles in the 1920s and 1930s....
  
  
• Louis Allen - bass
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• Alan Anderson - guitar
• Agnes Baddoo - background vocals
• Brett Banduci - viola
  Viola
  The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
  
  
• Patrick Brayer - fiddle
  Fiddle
  The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
  
  
• Dean Butterworth
  Dean Butterworth
  Dean "Deano" Butterworth is a professional drummer. He played for popular singer Morrissey and was announced as the official drummer for the band Good Charlotte in March 2005 after they parted with their previous drummer, Chris Wilson in 2005...
  
   - drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  
• Danielle Charles - violin
  Violin
  The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
  
  
• Juan Nelson - bass, background vocals
• Eric Person
  Eric Person
  Eric Person is an American alto and soprano saxophone player and leader of Meta-Four and Metamorphosis. Since coming to New York City in 1982, Person has performed with a who's who list of legends on the jazz and rock scene...
  
   - saxophone
  Saxophone
  The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
  
  
• Amy Piatt - background vocals
• Emily Wright - cello
  Cello
  The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
  
  

Production

• Producer: J.P. Plunier
• Engineer: Todd Burke
• Assistant engineers: Peter Doell, Erica Stephenson, Dann Thompson
• Mixing: Eric Sarafin
• Mastering: Dave Collins
• Art direction: J.P. Plunier
• Design: Flavia Cureteu
• Photography: Annalisa, J.P. Plunier

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Year	Chart	Position
1997	The Billboard 200	89