INTERVIEW : 2010-11-04 Fistful of Mercy brings a trunk full of energy and creativity to Seattle’s Showbox (by Nicole Brodeur)

By Nicole Brodeur


One night in August, a crowd spilled onto the sidewalk in front of Easy Street Records in West Seattle, bearing witness to the first public appearance of Fistful of Mercy.

The union of Ben Harper, Dhani Harrison and Joseph Arthur was still in its honeymoon stage; they had been together less than a year, and wouldn’t release their first album, “As I Call You Down,” until Oct. 5.

But it went so well that the band — with violinist Jessy Greene — is opening its first tour here on Tuesday at the Showbox at the Market.

“It was an ecstatic event,” Arthur said of the Easy Street session, which drew hipsters and seniors, families with kids. “The energy was so incredible. It felt like we were part of something special.”


The whole project is pretty special, considering that the album — a top-shelf mix of folk, blues and rock — was composed and recorded in little more than three days.

“I like to work fast, but this type of experience hasn’t really happened to me before,” Arthur said by phone the other day.

It started last January, when Arthur (The Lonely Astronauts) was preparing to play L.A.’s Troubadour. He texted his friend Harper (The Innocent Criminals) and asked him to sit in. Harper did, then booked three days in a recording studio and invited Harrison to join them. (Harrison, the son of the late George Harrison, debuted as a professional musician when he completed his father’s last album, “Brainwashed” after his death in 2001, then went on to form the band thenewno2.)

Arthur and Harrison started collaborating immediately on a song that would become “I Don’t Want to Waste Your Time,” which seemed to capture how they were feeling about first meeting in front of studio microphones.

“We were all nervous,” Arthur said. “We wanted to make music together, but to book studio time is a little nervy. So I think the album is the sound of a friendship evolving.”

Arthur couldn’t articulate how they all fit together.

“There’s no way to make us into caricatures like that,” he said. “Everybody is pretty much a full-on human being. There’s a lot of soul and experience and pain.”

But what clearly works are their voices: Harper’s mix of lightness and blues, Arthur’s mix of raw and heartfelt, and Harrison’s inherited sound, familiar to anyone who has listened to “Something,” yet new at the same time.

“The three voices have a chemistry together beyond anything I could have planned,” Arthur said. “I sat there and listened to the playback and it was kind of humbling.

“At the risk of sounding totally esoteric, we were guided by spiritual forces, and I feel like this union has this written all over it.”

It also helped that they each take turns driving the music.

“We all respect each other and trust each other and we all hand that off in a nice kind of way,” he said. “I like handing it off. I think it’s a relief.

“There’s a core of love and trust and respect going on.”

Arthur, who lives in Brooklyn, is feeling torn because Fistful of Mercy is based in Los Angeles. (They’re scheduled as musical guests the first week of Conan O’Brien’s new show on TBS).

He isn’t sure how it will all play out. For now, he’s just grateful.

“I remember when we were recording the album, Dhani said ‘I feel like my life just got a whole lot cooler,’ and I feel the same way,” Arthur said.

“Yesterday, we rehearsed and then went out for a drink and I was like, ‘Man, I love these people.’ There is a lot of love between all four of us.

“I look at it as a new kind of family.”

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