Ben Harper does everything well without doing anything particularly brilliantly. On his fourth album, Burn to Shine, he works electric and acoustic guitars, often within the same song, moving from keening folk ("Alone") to propulsive rock ("Less") to churchy soul ("Show Me a Little Shame") to alt-rock's melodic crunch ("Please Bleed"). The Southern country rock of "Steal My Kisses" — driven by a human beatbox — nestles alongside the cheerful, low-key swing of the 1920s-style arrangement in "Suzie Blue," with Harper's light, high voice making his commonplace sounds engaging. His musical eclecticism is so impressive, it's easy to overlook the well-meaning pedestrianism of his lyrics ("She brought me so many smiles and tears"). He has a vast and searching musical mind somewhat behind its time, still wringing meaning out of Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix.

“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."