Although the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and slide guitarist extraordinaire insists that he’ll always make music with his Criminals, right now he’s playing some of the most exhilarating music of his career with an outfit he calls Relentless7. Consider it Harper’s Texas band. Lead guitarist Jason Mozersky played in a band called Wan Santo Condo that Harper first heard when that band’s singer was driving Harper to a gig in Austin back in 1998. He was blown away, and later invited Mozersky to play on his 2006 album, Both Sides of the Gun. Mozersky then introduced Harper to a couple of his friends who played in another band out of Texas called Oliver Future: bassist and keyboardist Jesse Ingalls and drummer Jordan Richardson. They, too, played on Both Sides of the Gun, and the chemistry was so tight, Harper knew he’d found just the right guys to help him take his music in a new direction. And, as showcased on this May’s White Lies for Dark Times (Virgin), that direction is straight-up rock ’n’ roll, served up, naturally, with a whole lotta soul. The name of the first single sums up the Relentless7 experience perfectly: “Shimmer and Shine.”