Ben Harper and Jack Johnson at the North Shore Events Centre

By PETER GRIFFIN

He's one of those artists who have an inexplicably huge appeal to New Zealanders. Like the Violent Femmes in the late 80s or the Red Hot Chilli Peppers through the 90s, Ben Harper is able to sell out sizeable gigs the length of the country delivering a musical concoction that keeps us coming back for more.

In Harper's case it's a diverse mix of rootsy folk rock with doses of Mississippi blues, jazz and funk. Maybe that's his secret - jam so many different influences into the music there'll be something for everyone.

Hawaiian-born Jack Johnson opened the show with a straightforward set of folk-pop numbers from Bushfire Fairytales and presumably his new album On and On, which will be released in May.

With a subtle vocal style reminiscent of a mellow Dave Matthews, Jackson showed his knack for quiet ballads and straight-out pop songs, Flake among the best of them.

The political Excuse Me Mr launched Harper into a lively set drawn from the best of his five albums but with a generous focus on new album Diamonds On The Inside, his most poetic and inward-looking offering to date. The wonderful Brown Eyed Blues evolved into a powerful jam, Juan Nelson lighting up the show with the first of two elaborate bass solos.

Harper, in fine vocal form, switched from one antique guitar to another for virtually every song, taking a seat centre-stage occasionally for his signature lap slide guitar numbers.

Woman In You and Steal My Kisses were nice guitar-driven examples of his more mainstream leanings. Burn One Down, that ode to the green weed, oozed Bob Marley and was the best-received song of the night. The Dylanesque Diamonds On The Inside played out as what it was, a soulful love song.

Stopping only to repeatedly thank his audience, the wiry Harper let his spiritual and often Biblical songs speak for themselves.

"I can make peace on earth with my own two hands. I can clean up the earth with my own two hands," he crooned on With My Own Two Hands, which was delivered during the first of two encores.

There was no Sexual Healing, Please Bleed or Ground On Down, Harper's slide guitar-driven breakthrough hit. The 1995 video to that song had Harper sitting in the bottom of an empty swimming pool, guitar on his lap, and made him one of the coolest musicians of the 90s.

Maybe I was expecting a bit more shock and awe from the immensely popular musician but this wasn't a Lenny Kravitz show.

The smiles on the faces of a young generation of Harper fans showed his music, in all its shades, had hit the mark.