Beth Hart - Better Than Home: A Career Retrospective
(All the following quotes have been taken from various press interviews Beth Hart has done)
American singer/songwriter Beth Hart has just released Better Than Home on Mascot Records and many fans and critics are saying that this is by far her best studio album yet. Although Hart’s musical career has already spanned over 20 years, her journey to this point has not been an easy one by anyone’s standards. She has overcome plenty of personal and emotional issues in her life, including the break-up of her parent’s marriage, the tragic death of her sister, and an addiction to drugs and alcohol that almost destroyed her musical career. All of this has been complicated further by her being diagnosed as bi-polar since her early childhood.
BETTER THAN HOME HOME - ALBUM TRAILER
Better Than Home isn’t an album about what’s been wrong with Beth’s life. Instead, she’s choosing to write and sing about all of the good things she has – and she is finally able to acknowledge that they have been there for her all along. She can now love her parents for who they really are, and she can reward her husband’s unconditional love and constant support by writing beautiful songs for him. She can now face her own fears and she is finding new ways to convert that positive energy into really honest songs that move people and, heal both the herself and the listener. Better Than Home indicates that Hart has finally reached a more comfortable stage in her life.. She has found a better place, and her demons have been firmly dealt with.
"At times, I've been really down in my life, but you know, once you deal with it and make sense out of it, it can give you tremendous power."
Beth Hart was born on January 24, 1972 in Los Angeles, California. She became interested in music at a very early age and showed a precocious talent for both playing and composing. She spent most of her childhood immersed in classical music, playing the cello, and attending Performing Arts schools until she found her true “voice” and began writing and singing her own material. By her late teens, Hart was out performing in Los Angeles clubs, earning her rock and roll dues winning over normally hard-to please audiences with her natural down-to-earth charisma and electric stage presence. She was determined to be a musician but at the time she was still not sure she had the talent and the strength to make it.
In 1993, Hart appeared on the US talent show “Star Search” eventually winning the Female Vocalist competition. However, although Hart really enjoyed the experience, it didn’t help her musical career progress any further and she didn’t achieve overnight success like some of today’s talent show winners.
BETH HART SINGING "LIKE THE WAY I DO (Melissa Etheridge Cover) ON STAR SEARCH IN 1993
“I was out in Florida for the first time in my life and I was there for like a month recording it, and I kept winning which boosted my confidence. It was on at midnight and it wasn't on the radar the way that shows like American Idol are now. Even though I won the show and made a lot of money from it, it didn't really connect me to anything automatically.”
After Star Search finished she recorded an album with producer Geoffry Leigh Tozer and her band, called “Beth Hart and The Ocean of Souls”. This was done at Chick Corea's Mad Hatter Studios in L.A but Beth wasn’t happy with it for many reasons. The Album contained the song “Am I the One?” which went on to be a big hit with fans at a later point in her career.
David Wolff, saw her performing back out on the streets, and in the clubs of LA and eventually became her manager. Since then, Wolff has steadfastly stuck by her and supported her through everything she’s been through and Beth thinks a lot of him.
"Wolff, Man...this dude has been way more than just a Manager to me for over 18 years. He's one of my best friends...he's family."
BETH HART WITH MANAGER DAVID WOLFF
With Wolff’s help, she managed to clinch a deal with Atlantic Records when she was just 23 years old. Hart's first brush with success came with the 1996 release of “Immortal" which was produced by David Foster, Mike Clink and Hugh Padgham. They all heard and saw the same thing in Beth Hart that her fans love: a voice that delivers lyrics which inspire you and touch the very depths of your soul.
BACK COVER OF IMMORTAL ALBUM
Hart has often been described vocally as the “love-child” of Janis Joplin and Robert Plant, but even those mighty comparisons don’t really do her justice. She has an incredibly versatile vocal range – one minute she can quietly seduce you with a husky whisper, which is full of top-heavy vibrato and then in the next breath she can deliver a spine-tingling, perfectly pitched, ear splitting rock and roll scream, which will make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. She can sing just about anything from heavy Led Zeppelin rock tracks to heart-breaking Billie Holiday torch songs and ballads. She doesn’t mind being compared to Joplin at all:
“When I was coming up in the clubs in my early teens, people would say her name a lot. I was listening to a lot of Aretha [Franklin] and Etta [James], and that was my thing. I listened to a lot of rock and roll too, I was also listening to Kurt Cobain, and a lot of Soundgarden..... that was really where I was pulling my stuff from. But they kept saying “Janis! Janis! Janis!” So I went and I got some videos on her that I rented from Blockbuster. I put them in and I saw her performing live. I thought she was amazing! I got a record of the stuff she did with her funk band like “Try” and “Cry Baby,” and I thought she was just so different from any female I had heard. All the singers I listened to were black singers that were coming out of that rock ‘n’ roll, soul, and blues blend, but she was a different breed. I listened to her quite a bit, but it wasn’t until I was around 19 or 20 years old that I really did turn onto her. I love her, she was a great artist, and any time someone says something like that to me that I’m sounding like her, it makes me feel really proud. I loved her!”
In 1999 Hart released her 2nd album "Screamin' for My Supper" which was a collaboration with her former bass player and renowned producer, the late Tal Herzberg. “L.A. Story (Out of this Town)” became a hit in the US and got her noticed in Europe too. She was on tour to promote the album when she first met Scott Guetzkow, who was then a drum technician - he later became her road manager and her husband. Since then, he has always been there to support her through the best and the worst of times.
Just as Hart was on the very brink of success in 1999, things were about to come crashing down around her in the most destructive of ways. Beth explains what happened and what led up to that moment:
“I had messed around with drugs from a really young age. I was also diagnosed bi-polar when I was a young kid. It was an illness that wasn’t accepted as much and people didn’t know a lot about it unless they were gravely ill and had to be hospitalized all the time. My mother didn’t really believe in medication so I think I was kind of self-medicating myself as a kid. But thankfully, I would be working on my music and was always focused on that. To help my own brain I would have a separate life away from my friends and family where I would sneak off and go party for three days. Kind of disappear, and then I would come back and get back to work or school or whatever I was a part of. That had started at a pretty young age - about 11 or 12 years old. It stayed that way for years and like I said I had never done the medication for bipolar until I got older and really had to.”
Whilst recording Immortal she had managed to stay away from the drugs but struggled with the disease Anorexia instead and was starving herself on purpose, which she describes as “another way to numb my imbalanced brain.” By the time Screamin’ for my Supper was released in 1999, she was drinking heavily and had also taken on the lead role in Love, Janis, an off-Broadway musical based on Joplin's letters home to her mother.
“Instead of embracing and enjoying all the success, it seemed like my illness went out of control, and then I was drinking every day. I would go into seizures; the doctors suggested that I go on a drug called Klonopin. Being the manipulative addict, like a lot of us are, I pretended I didn’t know what it was. I knew what it was, it gets you pretty high. A lot of people don’t necessarily get addicted to it because it’s supposed to make you really tired and go to sleep, but with my brain chemistry it made me way better than heroin. Way better than any other drug I had ever tried. It was like, the end all. So I got on that and started taking really high amounts of it, and it just levelled my whole life. It ruined my relationship with family and friends, I’d been in the same apartment for 9 years and I got kicked out, my health was terrible I was skin and bones, and Atlantic said “We’re not gonna sit by and watch you die. You’re out of here, we’re sorry, we’re gonna drop ya.” Now I think if I had been more successful with them, maybe they wouldn’t have dropped me. Maybe they would have said, “Hey go get cleaned up and come back someday and put out another record.” I only had a small song that was doing well but it wasn’t like I had this big huge career going and I was a superstar, so they let me go. I didn’t know where to go and I didn’t really care, I hit that kind of bottom that you just don’t even care to come back. You want to die but you’re too chicken shit to take yourself out, so you just wait around for something that might. That’s honestly where I was.”
One night, Hart mixed alcohol and drugs and made the mistake of getting behind the wheel:
"The cops pulled me over, and I spent the night in lockdown. I figured I was either going to kill myself or be this jailhouse chick. It was good for me to see that side, because the police don't give a s*** about your woes. I've been in some dark, dark places, man. I was so terrified of becoming successful -- that people would see who I thought I was, as not good enough or strong enough, I just let the fear take me down. I'm a champion of self-sabotage."
BETH HART AND HUSBAND SCOTT
It was her growing relationship with Scott that really helped lift her up and get her back on course.
"He is a walking f***ing miracle. He took me in, fed me, and loved me long enough for me to love myself. I am so lucky that I have Scott in my life. He's my rock and my reality check when things start getting out of hand. At first, I refused to go to rehab so I decided to try and kick it at Scott’s house - but only because I couldn’t get doctors to give me the prescription any more. They figured out I was using a bunch of different names to get it. I couldn’t get it unless I went into Mexico and that was just too hard. I was like, “Okay I’ll try to do without.” I started having seizures and stuff. At the time Scott was just my boyfriend, but he laid himself down on top of me when I was having a fit and I was totally hoping I would die. When Scott started crying too, something totally shifted inside and I realized, “Whoa this is an amazing person that I have in my life and he loves me. If he’s amazing and he’s crying over me being sick, that means there must be something good inside of me.” It was then that I began the shift and the next day I went into rehab. In rehab I had two trauma specialists trying to figure me out. I was really crazy for a while. Forget about working -- I couldn't even walk or talk."
Recovery for Beth Hart was not easy.
” It was a long way back for me because I still refused to take medication for the bipolar disorder. They kept telling me in several different rehabs I went through, “What are you doing? Yeah you’re an addict but you got an illness you gotta take something for it.” I married Scott instead and that was the last week I ever took Klonopin.
I knew I never would but there were other drugs I would lean on like alcohol or speed. I knew I had to get home from that stuff too, and all the doctors kept saying, “You gotta take meds that will help you so much.” I’m like, “No I just need to be totally sober.” I immersed myself in the program and I got sober for a lot of years, totally clean on no medication for bipolar. Then I had a terrible mental breakdown - worse than ever before, and that’s when I started taking the meds for bipolar.
My life has gotten amazing since. It started with sobriety, but it took more than that to really get me in a place of having normal ups and downs instead of having dangerous ones. For a while, I had a lot of guilt and shame about that time in my life, but I've worked really hard on my recovery and learning about my past and my mental health. I learned about forgiveness and I've reached out to others to make amends.
After that period, I also learned about having compassion, for others and for myself. I don't really stay in that negative place anymore. I look at that part of my life and know that I wasn't a bad person, but there was a very ill part of my life. I don't look at it as a bummer, but I do feel grateful about it because it keeps me grounded and makes me proud every day that I don't pick anything up.
If I ever have a fleeting thought about that stuff, it's when I'm feeling insecure and when I'm not staying in touch with the people that help keep me in line with my healthy thinking. I'm not perfect in my sobriety, but I haven't touched a drug in over 10 years. Another thing is that I don't make my career my whole life. I paint and I cook in order to realize all of that other shit's just not fun.”
It was Hart’s 3rd Album Leave a Light On that finally got her back on track in 2003.
“ I had screwed things up so badly with all my being crazy and the drugs and all that, that I think I pretty much scared every connection I had here in the States away. They’re like, “Don’t work with her she’s out of her mind and a drug addict. Let her go.” When I started to get well again, I called my manager David Wolff and said, “I really would like to make a record.” My beautiful ex-label guy over there in Atlantic gave me some money and said “I know you’re not with the label anymore but I want to help you out.” I went ahead and made “Leave the Light On” on my own and I signed a deal with Koch Records who was an independent here in the States.
Music has always been my loyal friend. No matter how freaked out I was, I could still sit down and write on the piano. I was able to work out a lot of the sadness, but more so examine the awe of talking about things in a positive way. I had finished recording all of the songs for the album, and I was trying them out at the Mint, an intimate club in Los Angeles and people started reacting to it immediately and it turned out to be a beautiful thing."
Billboard Magazine said it was, "One of the year's most affecting albums. The stuff of icons." The album carried a message to others who were going through problems in their own lives:
“I wanted to tell people what I'd been through and inspire them to go for their dreams. It's OK to be who they are and not hide".
Leave A Light On was a critical success in the U.S., and eventually went platinum. The single Learning to Live reached #1 in Denmark and marked the beginning of Europe’s love affair with her. It was touring frequently in Europe that helped facilitate Hart’s musical come-back.
“The whole thing kind of started for me in Holland; it was wonderful because we got to work on a bigger scale, so we really chased it down. It was a smart approach David Wolff took too, because he said to break an area you can’t just come in once a year, unless you have a real radio-friendly type of music. He thought the only way was to really saturate the market and keep coming back, and coming back a lot! So we spent a lot of time first in Holland and then Denmark and Norway.”
Her 2005 release, "Live at Paradiso" captured one of her most electrifying live performances, before a sold-out crowd at the famous Amsterdam venue.
BETH HART "LEAVE THE LIGHT ON" - LIVE AT THE PARADISO
“We showed up there and the Paradiso got sold out, and that’s wild that’s like a 2,500 theatre. It was sold out just like that. We played there and we decided to come right back and do a DVD called "Live at the Paradiso", and we filmed it there. That started things rolling for me, but it was all in Holland. Then it segued into Denmark. Overnight my career started happening there. I had a big song on the radio. Then it segued into Norway, then into Germany, and slowly but surely now it’s gone into Switzerland and Sweden and France and England, into Italy. It’s taken a lot of years and a lot of work, but I finally got a great label, Mascot Records, to represent me for all of Europe and that had a lot to do with it too. I am now being represented in a proper way by a label”
Her fourth solo studio album 37 Days was released in Europe in July 2007. 37 Days was recorded live with her touring band at the time. The album was recorded and mixed over a period of 37 days; hence the title. It produced a #1 single in Denmark: As Good As It Gets.
AS GOOD AS IT GETS - 37 DAYS
Her next solo album was "My California" which was released in 2010.
“My California" was a very singer/songwriter-based record, and I’ve never done one that was as focused as that. My other records were pretty eclectic, a lot of rock ‘n’ roll, some pop stuff, and some singer/songwriter stuff. "My California" wasn’t that way at all. It was very lyric based. When it was done, I was done. I felt like I didn’t have anything else to say. I felt really proud of the record, but I didn’t know where to go next. That record is also the only one I’ve done as a co-write with one person for the whole album (with the exception of one solo-written song). I have done co-writes before but it’s usually been about half and half. Rune Westberg, the producer and co-writer, had said he’d really like it if I did one record where I didn’t scream at him but just told him stories! Part of me was like, ‘You’re an asshole!’ But another part of me thought that it might be an interesting thing to try, a challenging experience, which it was!”
Working with 3 very well known guitarists also helped shape the next phase of Beth Hart’s career.
Jeff Beck asked her to perform with him and she was the first lead singer to do a U.S. tour with him since Rod Stewart.
"Working with Jeff was like being with an enthusiastic and loving teenager. He gets totally inspired by other people's talents, and we really fed off of each other's energy!"
BETH HART WITH JEFF BECK
She also toured in Australia with him and he was to provide her with an opportunity that would elevate her further into musical history in 2012.
Beth has also teamed up with Gun ‘n’ Roses’ guitarist Slash. He played on her track, Sister Heroine, and then Beth co-wrote and sang the song Mother Maria, which was released on Slash’s album. This was the beginning of a working relationship that saw them performing together a number of times.
"He's one of the mellowest musicians I've ever worked with...totally giving, a real team player."
BETH HART WITH SLASH
It was in 2011, when she first began working with Joe Bonamassa that things really took off again. After providing vocals for the track "No Love on the Street" on his album Dust Bowl he invited her to collaborate on an album of blues classics, entitled Don't Explain.
“I didn’t really care what songs we were going to do, I was just really excited to work with him. I was so flattered that he would call me to do that, and then to give me such leeway. I received such respect from him and Kevin Shirley [producer on Don’t Explain] and the whole band. What amazing guys, there was so much respect it was like it was my band. I got to go in and do my thing and there was no dictating how it should go; no-one did that to anybody. It was like Kevin put us all together in a studio and said, ‘Go!’ We just played down each song maybe three, four times and he’d say, ‘OK, that’s done, let’s move on to the next one’ and it went as simple as that; it was so nice.
BETH HART & JOE BONAMASSA - INTERVIEW FOR "DON'T EXPLAIN"
When we were deciding on the songs, Joe said, ‘Just make the list you want, because you’re going to sing this stuff’ which was great! He and Kevin gave me a list of songs that they had in mind too, some things that I’d never heard before that were just so good, and some things that I didn’t much like. I felt uncomfortable saying so but eventually I had to say, ‘I don’t hear the song in this, I don’t get it’ and even then it was ‘No problem, do what you want to do!’
It was very intimidating knowing I was going to attempt things by Aretha Franklin, Etta James and Ray Charles, I was thinking, ‘I don’t know if I can do this'; but on the other hand it was incredibly exciting! It was Aretha and Etta of whom my best friend in my teens said, ‘If you really want to learn how to sing this is what you listen to.’ He gave me a copy of Blues In The Night – The Early Show, a live recording of Etta James, so when Joe said, ‘Let’s do some soul covers’ I thought I had to do a couple of songs from that. Even though I’d been listening to it all my life, this time I listened to it from a different place; I thought if I’m ever going to pull this off I’ve got to find my own personal story attached to these songs, otherwise it’s going to end up being a bad copy. So doing that eased off on some of my fears. I still got hives though! I never broke out in hives before in my life, and driving home with Scott after the first day I couldn’t stop itching and I looked and there’s these big red marks: I thought, ‘God I’ve really got to get this together, this is ridiculous!’
It was working with Joe Bonamassa and touring with him to promote Don’t Explain that really re-ignited things for Hart.
“When I started making this record with Joe, I got a feeling I haven't had in a long time. For Joe, it's all about the melody, and, as a singer, I feel so grateful to be working with someone who is so musically evolved. I was starting to wonder if I still had what it took to go all the way. The European fans, who have always really understood American-born music forms, were right there for me. They've given me so much support and so much confidence...I really, really love them.”
She also enjoyed working with producer Kevin Shirley.
“He is a genius. He gets you right to a place that makes you feel totally comfortable. He really knows how to work with artists."
The Album was nominated at the 23rd Blues Music Awards and The Blues Rock Review included the album in their "Top 20 Albums of 2011." After the success of "Don't Explain" Beth Hart’s star began to shine even brighter than before and she is eternally grateful for being able to work with Slash, Jeff Beck, and Joe Bonamassa.
“These guys have been amazing. I mean, they’ve become amazing friends. All three of those guys are so humble, first of all, and all three of them constantly are working on their craft. They’re constantly working at being better artists and writing better music and playing better. They surround themselves with people that will help them to grow and challenge them. There’s so much humility in all three of those guys, but they’re all such team players and they’re all such hard workers. I’ve been so fortunate for them to even consider having me be a part of anything in their lives. I’ve gotten to learn a lot from them, and it’s helped my career obviously, and it’s been so great knowing those guys.”
Her 7th studio album Bang Bang Boom Boom, was released in Europe in October 2012 and was produced by Kevin Shirley. It was unique from any of her previous albums. The seeds for the songs were sown during her time working with Bonamassa on Don’t Explain.
“It was during the recording of that record that I caught myself thinking, “I love doing this kind of music! Why don’t I try an attempt to challenge myself and see if I can go down the routes of it?” Especially some of the jazzier stuff, big band stuff, some of the Billie Holiday stuff. Take some of the gospel, rock gospel stuff, and work on some of that.
OFFICIAL VIDEO FOR BANG BANG BOOM BOOM
I started off with the song “Swing My Thing Back Around,” which was really influenced by Joe Turner and Fiona Apple, who I’m a big fan of. The song “Baddest Blues” was heavily influenced by “Strange Fruit,” the Billie Holiday Version, but also the song “Don’t Explain”.
OFFICIAL VIDEO FOR "BADDEST BLUES"
When I’m writing alone, I always work on the music for quite a while, unless it just happens to come quickly, but there’s a lot of thought put into that. The lyrics are always inspired by what the music is, so that’s what really happened differently on this record. I was going into those other genres as a writer. I noticed something midway through writing this record - it shifted my lyrical focus. I was writing a lot about love, and I’ve never done that before. I don’t think I ever felt like I deserved to write about something I didn’t know. I knew that other people had given me love but I never felt like I learned how to love others. Being with my husband for almost 12 years, I’ve learned so much from him. I felt like, you know that old saying, “A writer writes what he knows and shouldn’t write anything else. It’s probably a bad idea.” I just noticed that I was writing about love and that and it made me feel so good and stretched me as a songwriter”.
In December 2012, she appeared with Jeff Beck at the Kennedy Centre Opera House, along with a group of other blues/rock musicians, performing "I'd Rather Go Blind" in tribute to Buddy Guy, who received a 2012 Kennedy Centre Honour for his lifetime of contributions to American culture. What followed was one of the only two standing ovations of the evening, led by President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle. If any of Beth’s demons were around that night to haunt her, the millions of television viewers were completely unaware of it.
BETH HART SINGS "I'D RATHER GO BLIND" WITH JEFF BECK AT THE KENNEDY CENTRE
“It was so amazing. I’d played a couple of songs from "Boom Boom Bang Bang" on a TV show in England called [Later…with] Jools Holland and Jeff Beck was there. He said, “I think I’m going to be in touch with you in the next couple weeks - keep your ear out.” A couple weeks go by and I’m still on the road touring with the album, and he says, “I’m doing the Kennedy Centre Honours, do you want to come and do it too?”
Anything I can do with Jeff I would jump at. I said, “Yeah, yeah.” He goes, “I’m playing for Buddy Guy, honouring Buddy Guy.” That entire year I had gotten to open up for Buddy in Norway and it was so astounding to see this man, the way he played the guitar and the way he sang. Buddy Guy is a master! None of these guys would be playing like that if it wasn’t for Buddy. So when Jeff said, “Hey, do you want to do this” I was like “Yeah!”
I worked really hard on the song, I knew I wanted to do “I’d Rather Go Blind,” Jeff was down with that and the Kennedy Centre thought it was a cool song to do too because Buddy loved Etta James so much. That was one of her key songs. We thought that would be a really respectful thing to do and that would make him happy. I had done the song already with Joe Bonamassa on “Don’t Explain”, so I just sent that version over to the Kennedy Centre for the amazing band they have there. Jeff and I got together to work it out, and then we met up out there in DC. Thankfully I wasn’t nervous!
On the day of the show, we got to go to the White House and shake hands with Obama and his beautiful wife. Then we did the show, and it was great. I just walked out there, looked up, saw [Buddy Guy] up there and just tried to sing it to him. I got to stand next to one of the greatest guitar players I think that’s ever lived, Mr. Jeff Beck, and it was such an honour. I loved every second.”
OFFICIAL VIDEO - THE MAKING OF SEESAW
Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa went on to record a 2nd studio album of blues covers called Seesaw in 2013. They undertook another tour in Europe together, and produced a live DVD recorded over 2 nights at Le Carre Theatre in Amsterdam.
I LOVE YOU MORE THAN YOU'LL EVER KNOW - LE CARRE THEATRE, AMSTERDAM
In 2014 Hart was nominated for a Grammy Award for Seesaw and she was also nominated for a Blues Music Award in the category 'Best Contemporary Blues Female Artist'. She also played at Bluesfest in the UK in October 2014, and got to perform at The Royal Albert Hall with Blues veteran Robert Cray as her support.
The producer of the Kennedy Centre Honours, Michael Stevens, and the musical director, Rob Mathes, decided to produce her new album, Better Than Home which was released this week to much anticipation from fans.
The lyrics to the title song show just how far Hart has come in her 20 year journey:
I can feel my body breathing
I can feel my heart movin’ fast
I am not afraid or lonely
I am not chasing the ghost of the past
Mechanical Heart, is one of her most intimate and honest love song to her husband Scott. Tell Them To Hold On talks about how we all deal with our fears. St. Teresa is narrated by a man in prison and reflects Hart’s own experience of recovery and rehabilitation. There are also 2 very personal songs dedicated to her parents - Mama This One’s for You and Tell Her You Belong to Me – written for her mother and father respectively.
MECHANICAL HEART - BETH HART
Beth Hart is currently touring the UK and Europe promoting Better Than Home to her adoring and loyal fans. She’s also played the Australian Byron Bay Bluesfest twice and she now hopes to start touring more in the U.S.
“I’m just really thankful that I’m gonna get to tour there again. I hadn’t done a real tour in 10 years, before Boom Boom Bang Bang was released, except for some spot dates. That’s where I’m at in my life now; I try not to project too far in the future. I really try to embrace whatever is happening now and trying to make the most of that. When I say make the most of it, I don’t just mean work on it. I mean really enjoy it.
It’s going to be interesting to see if I can make friends with the US music press again and get some relationships going. Then actually getting out to do the shows and meet with people that are coming to the shows to see the music and seeing what they’re reactions are going to be and how the album is gonna go over for them. That’s a really exciting thing for me; it’s been so many years. That’s really what I’m focusing on, enjoying any and all these opportunities that are happening now. I'd like to bring all that energy back to the U.S. and remind them of where I came from. Surprisingly enough whenever we have booked a show in the US in the recent past it has sold out, not 2,500 seaters or anything, but 500 – 800 seaters, so we’re ‘doing it’.”
When she last played at Hat Tricks in America, people from 13 different states made their way to see her play there, already proving that she has the support of the home-grown fans too.
"It has been an amazing journey," Hart says. She may now have sold loads of records, worked with some of the most iconic blues artists in the world, and played in front of President Obama but the happiness and security she has found in her marriage is still one of the greatest things in her life.
Things are not always perfect and she’ll be the first one to tell you that – fame and all that hard work, constantly touring away from home, have their down sides as well as bringing her financial and emotional rewards. Beth was always wondering if she could make it to the very top of her game and despite her enormous talent, for many years she doubted that and it tortured her inside. The last few years have proved to be her most successful yet but fame, fortune and acknowledgement of her rightful place in music as one of the greats is not what she desires or strives for any more. Now she says “I've got something better. I became myself."
