Over the past five years, Ben Harper has established himself as one of the most charismatic and soulful musicians to make an appearance on pop radio.

Perhaps he's the only one, yes? At any rate, he has developed a large and loyal following for which he shows appreciation by touring 300 days a year with shows that are often described as "cool" and "nice," not to mention "orgasmic."

The newest project for Harper and his band, The Innocent Criminals, is a compilation of these large shows. Harper listened to hundreds of live recordings before settling on this ultimate show, a two-disc affair that sets out to replicate one of his shows and falls short only on olfactory ambiance — which can always be provided by listeners themselves.

The two discs really serve as two separate sets. Just as he does in his shows, Harper plays with the Criminals in the first set, moving from the raucous and raw rock 'n' roll of "Glory and Consequence" to the smooth seduction of his cover of Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing." The radio-friendly bubble-gum pop favorite "Steal My Kisses" is countered by the more memorable and explicitly counter-cultural "Burn One Down."

While the loud and sometimes violent chords of electric Ben and his buddies burn with fun and pack a solid political punch at times, it is in the second set, where Harper appears solo on his acoustic slide guitar, that the real soulfulness of his artistry is allowed to shine through.

Harper is adamant about retaining ties to his folk roots, and he does it well here. He has selected several tracks from Welcome to the Cruel World, his debut album that few noticed until his later success with Fight for Your Mind. It was with these early albums that he neared the divine through music as an acoustic wonderkid.

Indeed, he does it again here, bringing the rowdy crowds of the first disc to near silence as he expounds on the "Power of the Gospel," in which the real convincing is done not with his lyrics but with the simple haunting melody of his guitar.

Harper does well to mix his mournful and solemn love songs and ballads, like "Roses from My Friends" and "Another Lonely Day" with his angry or pained political anthems, "Excuse Me Mr." and "Like a King," the latter of which he blends into an interpretation of Maya Angelou's poem "I Will Rise."

Most artists would not be able to pull this off without sounding like shallow pompous windbags trying to be poetic through mimicry. As the final track on a set that has revealed Harper's lyrical and verbal abilities in the most intimate of American forms, Angelou's words fit well.

Harper's fans now abound on college campuses across the country, and there is no scarcity of his albums in their portfolios. But this is his first live release, and there is material here that cannot be found legally recorded elsewhere — covers of Gaye and Led Zeppelin for instance — and renditions of his own work that give these songs a new personality and a new medium of interpretation.

This is the kind of concert that can be listened to over and over without hearing every piece of it, a rare show that can make you dance, cry or drift off into bleary-eyed oblivion in the loving arms of your "special lady."

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