Ben Harper Wrestles Loneliness on New Song ‘Don’t Let Me Disappear’

Ben Harper has shared the video for his latest single “Don’t Let Me Disappear,” the rocker’s first new song in nearly a year.

“‘Don’t Let Me Disappear’ is about the fine line between loneliness, isolation and invisibility, to where you can’t seem to find a way not to be hiding in plain sight,” Harper said of the song in a statement.

Like Harper’s 2019 one-off single “Uneven Days,” his latest single is accompanied by a video co-directed Kristin Sudeikis and Gabriel Judet-Weinshel that juxtaposes Harper’s performance of the song with black-and-white footage of two modern dancers moving in sync with music.

It’s unclear when Harper wrote and recorded “Don’t Let Me Disappear,” but its lyrics seem to mirror the anxiety and loneliness of the age of COVID-19.

“Been so long since it felt easy/Been too long since anyone could reach me/It’s slipping away,” Harper sings, his acoustic guitar backed by mournful strings. “Don’t let me disappear.”

Harper and his Innocent Criminals last released Call It What It Is in 2016. The guitarist and bluesmen Charlie Musselwhite teamed up for No Mercy in This Land in 2018, while Harper also served as Mavis Staples’ main collaborator on the soul legend’s 2019 LP We Get By. “Uneven Days” arrived in July 2019.