Always a Song

Ellen Harper

Always a Song is a collection of stories from singer and songwriter Ellen Harper-folk matriarch and mother to the Grammy-winning musician Ben Harper.
Harper shares vivid memories of growing up in Los Angeles through the 1960s among famous and small-town musicians, raising her sons, and the historic Folk Music Center.

The second edition of this beautifully written memoir includes stories of Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, David Lindley, Doc Watson, and many more.

Harper takes readers on an intimate journey through the folk music revival.
The book spans a transformational time in music, history, and American culture.
Covers historical events from the love-ins, women's rights protests, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy to the popularization of the sitar and the ukulele.

“Growing up, an endless stream of musicians and artists came from across the country to my family's music store. Bess Lomax Hawes, Joan Baez, Sonny Terry, and Brownie McGee-all the singers, organizers, guitar and banjo pickers and players, songwriters, painters, dancers, their husbands, wives, and children-we were all in it together. And we believed singing could change the world.”—Ellen Harper

Music lovers and history buffs will enjoy this rare invitation into a world of stories and song that inspired folk music today.

A must-read for lovers of music, history, and those nostalgic for the acoustic echo of the original folk music that influenced a generation
Harper's parents opened the legendary Folk Music Center in Claremont, California, as well as the revered folk music venue The Golden Ring.
A perfect gift for people who are obsessed with folk music, all things 1960s, learning about musical movements, or California history

“Ellen Harper may be known to music fans as the mother of the musician Ben Harper, but there is so much more to her story.... A very personal take on the folk music revival with an especially lovely foreword by the author's son.” Booklist

“Ellen Harper's unique vantage as red-diaper baby, folk connector, counterculture witness, and maven of family and community is matched by her memory, wit, and compassion.” JONATHAN LETHEM, New York Times bestselling author of Chronic City and Motherless Brooklyn

“Ellen Harper's extraordinary story is revelatory, inspiring, and compulsively readable. Harper's account of fighting the establishment in the name of art and equality is required reading-a songbook of protest, of freedom, of revolution and resurgence.” BRET ANTHONY JOHNSTON, internationally bestselling author of Remember Me Like This

“A bridge back to the world I remember as a child of folkies, beatniks, free lovers, poets, and intellectuals-all fighting for a new way of life-Harper's memoir is of a wonderful complicated family, the story of a woman, the story of America.” BOB FORREST, lead vocalist for Thelonious Monster and The Bicycle Thief

“Ellen Harper is folk music royalty, growing up with Pete Seeger and Joan Baez around the dinner table. Her story is both heartrending and a pleasure to read.” ROGER MCGUINN, Leader of the Byrds

“Truth-teller Ellen Harper writes through five generations of her multi-cultural family's odyssey of fighting to keep music real and powerful in American life. At times heartbreaking and humorous, but always inspiring and not to be missed by songwriters and singers, music fans, or anyone who likes a meaningful story.” PETER CASE, Singer, Songwriter, Producer

“Ellen Harper strikes a major chord while sharing her real life experience in the folk music world from its very early days. She continues to make life happen in a meaningful musical manner. Always a Song is a great read.” CLAUDIA LENNEAR, Twenty Feet from Stardom and former Ikette with the Ike and Tina Revue

“I read this book in a weekend, riveted by the intimacy and the honesty of Ellen's narrative. Always a Song is an eloquent, searching account of a life lived for truth, love, and music.” JACKSON BROWNE

“This book is a love song and at times a blues song; but always a folk song of community, compassion and justice. Full of love of family and love of music, a most fertile ground for sowing seeds of human harmony. Each chapter unfolds like another Child Ballad to the heartbeat of this remarkable woman, Ellen Harper. Indeed, there is always hope as long as we keep on singing.” JOHN YORK, former bassist for The Byrds

“The author crafts a compelling story of an ordinary life taking surprising turns.” Kirkus Reviews

ELLEN HARPER is a singer, songwriter, musician and author. Harper dropped out of college, married, had three children, and was divorced with a mortgage by age 29. Between working at the Folk Music Center and returning to school she graduated with a PhD and taught for many years. Harper left academia to return to the Folk Music Center over two decades ago. “Charles Chase, my father excelled at convincing people to give up security for Folk Music.” Ellen has released two albums, one solo, Light has a Light of its Own and one in collaboration with her son Ben Harper, Childhood Home. Currently Ellen is proprietor of the Folk Music Center in Claremont, California, a member of the folk trio, Citrus Sisters, runs the shop, concert series, open mic and teaches ukulele. Her second book All that I’m Allowed was published by Bamboo Dart Press in 2024. Harper has several grandchildren that come in to help at the shop. They are the fifth generation of Udin/Chase/Harpers to work at the music store. When Ellen read this bio to her husband he said, “Don’t forget, you got married again.”