Vocal Powerhouse Beth Hart Is Back
Photo by Jeff Katz
Beth Hart, the classically-trained musician whose powerful, soul-baring voice has been compared to those of Janis Joplin, Etta James and Amy Winehouse, is back with a bang ~ or rather, with a Bang Bang Boom Boom ~ and a string of live performance dates. Flashwounds will be catching Beth when she comes to Boston on Saturday, September 7 at the Wilbur Theatre as Very Special Guest of The Rides, the new all-star blues-rock group comprised of Stephen Stills (Buffalo Springfield/CSN/CSN&Y), fellow guitar slinger Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and venerable Electric Flag keyboardist Barry Goldberg. The confirmed itinerary for the tour is below, and tickets are on sale here beginning this weekend.
The Rides
Hart, whose hard-won comeback after a decade of struggling with various demons has, if anything, brought even more soul to her already passionate, bluesy style, shares that “I’m a big fan of these guys, so I’m really looking forward to this tour. I don’t know if Stephen remembers this, but many years ago, he and I played a gig together in Jamaica, and we sang a song together. It was a big night for me.” (Beth, we’re guessing there’s no way Stephen doesn’t remember you!)
You may have seen Beth last December when she joined Jeff Beck at the Kennedy Center Honors (click here to see Beth and Jeff perform “I’d Rather Go Blind”) to pay musical tribute to nominee Buddy Guy. She received a rare, non-nominee standing ovation that included the President and Mrs. Obama, and Guy, not familiar with Hart at the time, was so impressed that he asked her to sing vocals on the track “What You Gonna Do About Me” for his new album Rhythm & Blues, released July 30.
Photo by Jeff Katz
Her latest album, Bang Bang Boom Boom, has received stellar reviews (like M Music and Musicians’ observation that “…these songs suggest an American Adele or Amy Winehouse, but Hart has earned her Billie Holiday affectations and bold stylistic leaps….”), she headlined her first U.S. tour in 12 years this past April/May and sold out every date, she blew away Conan O’Brien (and his entire audience) with her first late-night TV appearance in more than a decade, Seesaw ~ her second album with blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa ~ debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Blues Chart, and her raw, passionate, bluesy voice is winning over the press, earning her praise like “…a force-of-nature singer…,” (CBS Radio), “It is the voice that turns your head…in seconds flat, you are enraptured by what is emanating from this woman’s throat. Beth Hart has got it,” (Glide Magazine), and “…remarkable….” (Sound and Vision).
Beth had a very promising career back in the 90s: she was signed to Atlantic Records after a bidding war, appeared on “The Tonight Show” and “Letterman” (and was invited to appear on “SNL”), mounted great tours that received great press, had a hit record with “L.A. Song,” and then lost it all to substance abuse and a then-undiagnosed bi-polar disorder. Beth Hart hit rock bottom…hard.
About ten years ago, though, unlike some of the talented but tragic female musicians to whom she’s
been compared, Hart had the strength and will to stand back up, get clean and healthy, find true love, and begin rebuilding her career, starting back on the road to recognition in Europe, where she’s now selling out 4000 seat venues.
Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, and Joe Bonamassa recognized her talent and drive, as did Slash, and have all initiated collaborations with her. Hart’s first U.S. headline tour in more than a decade sold out, and the April 9, 2013 release of Bang Bang Boom Boom is paving the way for a full-fledged return in the States.
September Tour Dates
1 Tropicana Hotel & Casino, Atlantic City, NJ
3 Bergen Performing Arts Center, Englewood, NJ
5 Ridgefield Playhouse, Ridgefield, CT
7 Wilbur Theatre, Boston, MA
8 Theatre at Westbury, Westbury, NY
10 Carnegie Music Hall of Homestead, Pittsburgh, PA
11 North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, Skokie, IL
13 Pabst Theatre, Milwaukee, WI
14 Ohio River Throwdown at Riverbend, Cincinnati, OH
16 Lexington Opera House, Lexington, KY
20 Arena Theatre, Houston, TX
21 ACL Live at the Moody Theatre, Austin, TX
24 Fox Performing Arts Center, Riverside, CA
25 The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA
27 Grand Sierra Ballroom, Reno, NV
More About the Album Seesaw
Seesaw is the follow up to 2011’s Don’t Explain, which inspired Slant Magazine www.slantmagazine.com to call Hart “…a simply peerless frontwoman.” AllMusic.com added that “Bonamassa and band accent her every phrase with requisite rowdiness, sting and grit,” and About.com called the duo “…a match made in Heaven.” MOJO praised their “potent musical chemistry,” and the album was nominated for a 2012 Blues Music Award. Seesaw opens with a joyous horn reveille kicking off “Them There Eyes,” made famous in 1939 by Billie Holiday ~ one of Hart’s biggest inspirations. “My mother turned me on to this song when I was a kid,” recalls Beth. “I love the bubbliness. It’s sexy, it’s fun, and it has a great swing to it.” On the track “Nutbush City Limits,” Hart wails with an intensity that would make Tina Turner proud, and her slow and soulful burn on “I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know” is a dramatic companion to Bonamassa’s smoking guitar. The tempo kicks up several notches with Hart’s tight, rocking vocals on “Can’t Let Go” from Lucinda Williams’ Grammy-winning 1998 album Car Wheels On A Gravel Road. It’s followed by her fierce cover of “Miss Lady,” the Buddy Miles song that was originally produced by Jimi Hendrix. Hart revisits Melody Gardot’s songbook to deliver a sultry, jazzy rendition of “If I Tell You I Love You.” “See Saw” is a Don Covay/Steve Cropper composition from Aretha Franklin’s 1968 album Aretha Now, and the album closes with Hart’s haunting and atmospheric version of “Strange Fruit,” a song that began as a poem by Abel Meeropol about American racism and lynching.
Download your free song here from Seesaw here and order the album here.