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Aangeboren muzikaliteit levert niet automatisch spannende muziek op en een verleden vol drank en drugs zorgt niet per sé voor een interessant verhaal. Maar als die twee zaken verenigd worden in een in persoonlijke teksten beschreven doorlopende strijd tegen oude, lastig af te schudden gewoontes en vertolkt worden door een zangeres wiens stembereik geen limiet lijkt te kennen, ontstaat er een boeiend geheel dat zich niet laat afremmen door de geldende beleefdheidsnormen van een theaterzaal. Zeker niet als die zangeres Beth Hart is.
Het publiek in het Bredase Chassé Theater krijgt vrijdagavond in eerste instantie een voorzichtig akoestisch optreden voorgezet, ingeleid door de countryrock van Julie Neumark. Valt vooral op door haar combinatie van goede bedoelingen met een goede stem maar kan verder (nog) geen echte potten breken. Beth Hart trekt Neumarks lijn door met een kalm begin van haar set, maar dat schuift al snel op in de richting van haar ware, ongeremde muzikale aard. Van wapperende vingers en wat akoestische stemoefeningen ter opwarming klimt Hart al snel naar diepe uithalen terwijl ze met haar rug naar de zaal op haar knieën zakt om in samenspel met drummer Todd Wolf het volume van stem en instrumentale begeleiding langzaam op te voeren.
Foto: © BethHart.com
De openhartige Amerikaanse laat zich langzaam steeds meer gaan. Op grootste hit LA Song vertelt ze nog in de derde persoon over zichzelf, maar op het podium in Breda deelt ze haar ervaringen met haar laatste psychiater zonder schroom met het publiek: “He told me psychiatry isn’t meant to change the way I am, it’s meant to learn how to accept the fact that I’m fucked up.” Het klinkt als een wijze les – die met applaus onthaald wordt – waar Hart oprecht van lijkt te profiteren. Er hangt een bepaalde nonchalante opluchting over haar optreden die terugkomt in haar praatjes en houding, in haar ongegeneerde roken en vloeken op het podium, maar ook in haar manier van zingen en spelen. Schijnbaar zonder enige moeite vliegt haar stem heen en weer tussen ingetogen en keihard terwijl haar handen, sowieso nooit in rust, over de toetsen van haar keyboard fladderen.
Af en toe loopt het even wat stroef, voornamelijk door niet-werkende microfoons en slecht afgestelde monitors op het podium. Op een enkele wat schel klinkende noot uit de mond van Hart na heeft het publiek daar geen last van, maar het is wel merkbaar dat de impulsieve zangeres er moeite mee heeft. Het komt echter iedere keer snel weer goed en naarmate de uitstekende begeleidingsband de bombast verder opvoeren, komt de show meer tot leven. Zo komt Beth Hart ook het beste tot haar recht: ongeremd en onbegrensd. Niet voor niks dat ze na het optreden besluit dat ze voortaan toch eigenlijk liever alleen nog maar rockshows wil doen.
Gezien: Beth Hart in het Chassé Theater in Breda op vrijdag 4 december 2009. Muziek.nl
Interview with
Beth Hart
BETH HART is an astonishing sing-a-song-writer and also a very open person. It is hard to define what makes her so interesting. When I heard " Leave The Light On" accidental on the radio it changed my whole musical live. It is my example how she touched many people over the years. Her raw, rich coloured voice makes every live performance unique and full of emotions. It was a real challenge for me to share such a confidential story - from both of us - with you all. Please respect this and be ethical with this information.
With the hit " LA Song (Out Of This Town)" in 1999 grows her fan base, especially 
in Scandinavia and The Netherlands. " Leave The Light On" (2003) is her most successful album so far. On the Dutch Dauwpop festival there is the change for an agile conversation with this grandiose artist.
Silvia Deurwaarder (SD): I am curious about her inspiration for new songs. Her recent album "37 days" (2007) has a strong soul feeling. On the Dauwpop show she changed old songs and gave them a new atmosphere. Like with the song"Lifts You Up"
Beth Hart: I started with a new record the month before I took off this tour. I am working with a new producer, really an amazing guy. I did one song with him years ago called "Lay Your Hands On Me' (on " The Leave The Light On" album - SD) and he is crazy talented. We got four songs done do far and it is way more old old old school soul. I still have some hard rock stuff, and still a few story-telling-ballades. But there will be more horns, background black-singers, and the whole soul feeling!
" Influences"
She is smiling when she says this, sitting on the wooden picknick-bench. With her sunglasses on. I ask her if she found the atmosphere to develop her soul side more. Yes! Favourite singers like Aretha Franklin are a strong inspiration. It is all about soul and groove.
SD: That sounds promising, because it took a while to write your last album. It happened before, after the success of "LA Song" you needed time to write new songs as well.
Beth Hart: I needed to create a different live; I think that is the topic for me so far. In the past many people scared me because they judged my music. Now I try not to make a big deal of it. It is music and I should be entertaining the people, writing and having fun. It is not brain surgery.
SD: It is not like analysing yourself anymore?
Beth Hart: Exactly, it doesn't matter. I just want to do my show and when it sucked it doesn't matter, nobody dies. When I do a great show and everybody loved it, it is still over.
SD: You needed time to no perfectionist, but everybody makes mistakes?
Beth Hart: It is funny that you say that, because I am saying that a lot to myself when I think about some of the people in my past. They said things to me that were hurtful. And it kind of get's me mad. Then I think I said things to people that were hurtful and it is not intentional for him, it was stupid.
I don't want to get personal, but after her "welcomes- hug" I have the feeling it will be an open conversation. I recognize feelings like struggling and having hope in many of her songs, what touches me a lot. Beth Hart has an own interpretation:
With women specially, we know we live in a men's world and it is kind of hard to be confident like men. Whey they get older, they get better looking. When we get older, they say it is worse but that is not true. I think it is harder to be secure of yourself if you are a woman in this world. You have to love yourself and that is hard.
'Bravery'
SD: You must feel more confident now, because you can write songs in the good and the bad times.
Beth Hart: No I think my life will always be with a lot of ups and downs. There is a history of mental illness. My brain is sometimes able to see live for what it is. On other times my brain is not seeing things normal. You never know when a relapse of your brain comes. Because of that I prepare myself: to know that sometimes I be sane and getting along with people and be able to work. I go to mental hospitals, I can function on the outside.. .
Then she is silent for a while, moves her cigarettes on the table, looks up and continues:
It is like "real" for me since I was a kid. It is a part of me. It is ok, everybody has their difficulties to deal with. At least I have the doctors and supportive friends. I take good medication and I do better.
Last year I had a total relapse and I went to the mental hospital for a month. It is scary in there because everybody is really gone: see things that aren't there.. I am not schizophrenic, but one blowing... but it mix with good song writing you know!
She can laugh about it, but it makes me silent because - like many others I recognize her dark periods. It is very brave of her to accept that part of herself. That is a long and difficult process, referring to own experiences.
Beth Hart: It is amazing you say that! For so many years people have been telling the doctors in hospitals they going to, other explanations.
I kept saying: 'No that is because I did drugs or drank too much alcohol so my mind is not working.'
They said: 'No you use drugs and alcohol to try to make your brain feel better, because it is hard.'
And this past year I said what you just said, I finally ingested and came to believe that yes there is a disorder, but that doesn't make me a bad person.
SD: It is just bad luck and feeling guilty is not the best solution.
Beth Hart: It is manageable as long as I let everybody around me know what I have, so they can understand me. I ask God; help me to remember the love for myself and take the medicine. And expect that sometimes things are very good and sometimes are very hard. That is live, we all go truth it.
SD: It is open hearted that you dare to talk about it.
Beth Hart: It would be selfish and insane if I kept it to myself. In the career I am in, I am very fortuned to be able to do an interview with you, because someone is a fan out there reading the article saying she is dealing with this too and I am not a bad person.''
'37 Days'
To create some air in the conversation we change the subject to the recent album. Between the last two albums there happened a lot: new band members and a better platform to create something new.
Beth Hart: The band and I have been writing a lot all those years, but we toured so much. We didn't make the record earlier, because we wanted to do something different. Not hire a producer, go into the studio and make an album. We wanted to rehearse our asses of for months and months. So that when we made the record we would do it all live. Signing, playing, guitars and drums: everything in the same time. Not taking track after track. Doing vocals and the rest later. We made the record in 1,5 week. Then we went mixing, added background singing and arrangements. After all it took 37 days to make it.
SD: That proved the good teamwork and made you proud as a band?
Beth Hart: Definitely, it was total teamwork. Every person in my band was responsible for making that record. In terms of the song writing: I will write my own things about how I feel. Sometimes I hear interesting stories and l write about what they feel. Only put it in the first person. If you put the story like it is you happening it, than it is more thoughtful. Instead of I talked to Mary today and she is in a lot of pain and this is what is going with...' Sometimes maybe, but when someone is hearing I and Me it is stronger.
SD: So it is not all a biography but little elements, you just translate the emotions on stage?
Beth Hart: It is so amazing when I listen to a lot of people I see how much alike we all are. Our fears, dreams… it is all similar and I love that. The most special thing about anybody is not the unique but what's similar we all connected to.
'Germany'
SD: For the first time there a long tour planned in Germany during the summer. The Dauwpop festival is a short break in the schedule.
Beth Hart: Germany is been amazing for us on this tour, because I was very scared. I was worried because the economy is suffering and it is very hard to take 
my whole band on the road. It was just JON NICHOLS(guitarist) and me on this whole tour. I knew it worked in Denmark because they prefer the more songwriter/ acoustic songs. Germany I know, like Holland, likes rock.
I was so scared and it was a better reaction. I was so happy. Especially because it is so expensive to bring the whole band. When we would have a hit somewhere, or a real amazing under crowd following like in The Netherlands I can effort the band. Otherwise it is good to know that we can do a good show just acoustic. We had such a good time there!
Unfortunately Beth Hart and her crew need to pack their bags and travel further. She takes the time for a last personal message and a quick photo shoot. Then finally the sunglasses go off.
Beth Hart: So welcome. I want to say that how you are as a journalist is so wonderful. Because you are very kind and I found out that some journalists can be a little hard on you and you don't get a good interview that way. All artists, like anybody, are sensitive. Everybody is sensitive. When I have to meet someone for the first time and acts like 'blabla' I have the feeling I don't want to talk to him. But when it is like you, when the person is save, than I talk to you. Thank you, awesome interview.
Contributed by Silvia Deurwaarder Sunday, 06 September 2009
© Interview on copyright and behalf of LIVEXS magazine
Pictures exclusive copyright by Femke Hansen
Both may not be copied or used without permission from the author.
Otherwise Juridicial steps are taken.
Beth Hart Opens up to NZGirl
Since her visit last December, singer Beth Hart has been telling reporters around the world just how much she loves New Zealand. Beth was back again recently to play support for David Gray, and to promote her new album...
nzgirl editor Kate and Beth settled down into one of the Stamford Hotel's comfy sofa's for what she expected to be a fairly normal interview. After 5 minutes Beth started to really open up about her life, and the prepared questions were ditched.
You were here a few months ago for Christmas in the Park
"Yes amazing! We had a full gospel choir and orchestra it was really a treat. Lollapalooza was my first time really touring out, and that was in front of 50,000 people, but I was still working my first record so they weren't my audience. Whereas with coming here, it feels like they're my people.
Have you done any writing while you've been here?
I have been writing actually a really dark piece and I have no idea what I'm going to call it but I really like it. I was writing a bit in Wellington.
Is there anything in particular that starts you writing?
Yeah, usually when I'm really upset' that's really the best writing for me. If I'm really happy-go-lucky and everything is right on, 'm not going to write. There's no reason for me to, so I'm going to go out and live while things are good. When I go in to a funky place - and life is going to give us some funky times - that's a good time for me to write because it's good healing.
Do you have a favourite track on your new album?
I really like If God Only Knew because I wrote it for my father. I've never written a song for my father so that one has a lot of meaning to me, and I hope he gets it. 'Light On' is especially dear to me right now because it's a confessional, and I needed one. I needed something I could write up front about all the things that I'd done. When I go back to the States, I'm adding 3 or 4 songs to this record and we'll reissue the record, so there are a couple of things going on that I'm really excited about.
Where do you live at the moment?
I'm living in L.A, so it's a big city to be in, but Scotty (Beth's husband) and I have live in an area called Silver Lake that's 3 minutes from downtown Los Angeles, but you would never think it. It's very tiny, and built around a reservoir that they call Silver Lake, and it's the oldest area in Los Angeles - it's totally bitchin. We know all our neighbours, it's great.
What type of girl are you?
I'm really not a girlie girl at all. Now I'm married to such a sexy guy, I like to keep myself looking kind of sexy for him. (whispers) but I'm really not a girlie girl. I like the boys side of thing“ I always said that if there was such a thing as reincarnation, I wish I could come back as a male rock singer. They're just so the shit. Chris Cornell is just the most amazing singer.
Have you met him at all?
Yeah I met him at Lollapalooza. I was 24 (she's 31 now) and I got to go into his dressing room and meet him and the other guys in his band. Ohhh, I was so nervous that I sat there and just stared at him just sat there staring and didn't say a word. He's so gorgeous and so talented.
At this point I noticed Beth's tattoo a colorful cobweb right on her elbow
Did that hurt?
This one did actually I've got quite a few. This one I didn't have finished, but I'd like to finish it. It was supposed to be much bigger, but the boyfriend I had at the time, we were breaking up and he was my tattoo artist and he wouldn't finish it that day, and when I got married, my husband said no more tattoos.
Did you get it done for any particular reason?
Yes, I got it done the day before I went into my last rehab and I was so angry and pissed off that I couldn't get my pills. No doctor would give them to me and I was like,I am going jailhouse man, and I called up John and told him to come and give me this tattoo on my elbow. I was just crazy, and I never would have had any of those tattoos done if I hadn't been so messed up. I got everything done in 9 months, and that's 7 or 8 tattoos.
Do you think that was because your boyfriend was a tattooist?
You know its funny you say that because I remember the first time that my mother met him, he was facially tattooed actually, he's in the LA Song video “ my mother said, Whatever you do, please don't get a tattoo. And I said won't, I won't. Next thing you know I was doing David Letterman and David asked me to turn around and show the cameras my tattoo, and my Mom saw the dragonfly on my back. She's very forgiving, but at first she was very sad. I do enjoy them though.
What was happening when you wrote Lifts You Up?
I actually wrote it a long time ago before LA Song. Basically that was another day of being bummed, but I think it was around the time in my life that I started realizing that even if today sucks, it does get better, always. Thats just how it goes, and I just wanted to write something about that.
Do you put your music on when you feel down?
Oh no, never mine! Usually I listen to my stuff when I've just recorded it, and I listen to it madly for a little while. When I put it away, I put it away for good. If you listen too much you think, Oh, that wasn't too good that part, and then you start critiquing your music, and you shouldn't do that let it lie.
What do you think you'd be doing if you weren't singing?
I wasn't into music, I think that I would be dead or in jail. I'm not saying that to be dramatic, but my personality is so much of this running, and I'm always thinking I'm insecure, yet really outgoing at the same time. To have an outlet like being able to go on stage and act out my aggression or being able to write and get out the stuff I'm feeling, it really helps me to just chill a little bit.
Ironically, it almost killed me. The height of what I've experienced in my life as far as success was LA Song, and that's when in my life, I got really messed up on drinking and drugs. So that's the ironic part my life was really good, but it terrified me too. I was 27, 28 when LA Song started happening, and by 29 I was in the hospital and I had a really hard time getting better it took like a year and a half, two years before my brain was functioning normally, because it was just gone.
How did you meet your husband?
I met Scotty at the beginning of my Screaming for my Supper tour, but we in no way were intimate we didnt even like each other! He thought I was a total asshole, I thought he was a total asshole, and we just did not get along. About 11 months later, we did hooked up, and then we kept fooling around and being crazy.
When I had to get clean I was really dramatic and I was freaking out and then I had to go into rehab and he took me to his house for a week then took me to rehab. He came to see me every day, and its like a 2 hour drive, just so there was someone with me for a few hours each day. He asked me to marry him in rehab, but then he didn't ask me again for almost a year, and I was so pissed! Right when things got to be the worst but also the best (whispers) I'd gone to jail, but then the day I got out he asked me to marry him again, and we went straight to Vegas and got married! I haven't been in trouble since!
Looks over and sees Scotty staring
He's so cute, he's getting all excited and he's all embarrassed!
www.bethhart.com
Beth Hart kiest voor het leven
Het gaat weer goed met Beth Hart, en voor een blueszangeres die zo effectief de ellende van zich af kan zingen is dat natuurlijk tricky. De voormalige drugs- en drankverslaafde was de inspiratie even kwijt, maar kreeg hem met hulp van bovenaf weer terug. Met een nieuw album als resultaat: 37 Days.
Door Guido Verburg
Het is een gezellige boel in de Amsterdamse hotellobby waar de extraverte Beth Hart de Nederlandse pers te woord staat. De cameraploeg die vóór Sp!ts aan de beurt is, krijgt een warme, welgemeende knuffel als de Amerikaanse bluesrockster hoort dat dit hun allereerste interview ooit was. Op tafel staat een doosje heerlijke luxe chocolaatjes klaar die ze van een stel Nederlandse fans heeft gekregen, en echtgenoot en reddende engel Scott Guetzkow komt zich halverwege het gesprek ook nog even netjes voorstellen. En hij krijgt uiteraard ook een chocolaatje.
Zo'n goed mens, niet alleen voor mij, maar hij is goed voor iedereen die hij tegenkomt", zucht Hart even later over haar man ,,Weet je, we zijn ooit stiekem getrouwd in Las Vegas, toen ik nog niet helemaal clean was. Eenmaal terug thuis ben ik weer over straat gaan zwerven en kwam ik in de stad een bekende van me tegen. Ik zei: 'ik ben net getrouwd met de meest geweldige man, en ik wéét gewoon dat ik het weer ga verknallen'. Hij zei: 'als hij echt zo goed is, ga dan snel naar huis en probeer te doen wat hij doet'. Dat vond ik geweldig advies! Sindsdien probeer ik meer zoals Scott te zijn, en dat gaat me best aardig af. Al ben ik er natuurlijk nog lang niet."
Het mag duidelijk zijn, het gaat stukken beter met Hart dan een paar jaar geleden, toen ze het door zware drugs- en drankproblemen gekleurde derde album Leave the light on schreef. Daar deed ze twee jaar over, daarmee vergeleken was 37 Days een makkie. ,,It was a ball!" roept ze enthousiast. ,,Ik voelde totaal geen druk, en dat kwam omdat we hadden besloten alles zoveel mogelijk live op te nemen. Gewoon met de hele band alles tegelijk inspelen. In twee weken stond alles erop, met mixen erbij duurde het 37 dagen - vandaar de titel. Weet je, ik krijg vaak de opmerking van fans dat ze mijn platen leuk vinden, maar mijn optredens geweldig. En ik dacht: 'waarom kan ik het dan niet net zo overbrengen in de studio?' Dat hebben we dus geprobeerd na te bootsen. Met mijn band, mijn broeders, dicht om me heen, ik kon het zweet van mijn gitarist zien afdruipen en voelde de trillingen van het drumstel. Ik kreeg echt het livegevoel, en dat maakte me stukken zelfverzekerder. Ik heb me namelijk altijd veel veiliger gevoeld op het podium dan in de studio."
En da's een belangrijk gevoel voor de zangeres. Ze mag dan alweer dik twee jaar van de drugs en de drank af zijn, de bij verslaving horende angstaanvallen komen nog regelmatig terug. ,,Ik blijf een verslaafde. Altijd onzeker, altijd behoefte aan goedkeuring, ik ben echt net een klein kind. Er hoeft maar iets te gebeuren en ik raak in paniek, dan ben ik bijvoorbeeld zomaar ineens doodsbang bij het idee een restaurant binnen te moeten stappen."
Het moeizame proces van afkicken en de periodiek terugkerende drugsuitspattingen inspireerden haar bij het donkere Leave the light on. Ze geeft toe dat ze sindsdien wel bang is geweest dat zónder al die ellende het liedjes schrijven ineens niet meer zou lukken. ,,Sterker nog, er kwam een hele tijd helemaal niks meer uit. Bijna twee jaar stond ik droog, dat was heel frustrerend. Liedjes schrijven is namelijk het allermooiste van dit vak, mooier nog dan optreden. Op een avond begon ik erover op het podium, want tot ergernis van mijn familie gooi ik mijn ellende er altijd openlijk uit. Ik zei: 'beste mensen, het zou goed kunnen dat het me nooit meer lukt een liedje voor jullie te maken. En weet je wat? Als dat de consequentie van het afkicken is, dan moet dat maar. Het is het me waard, want mijn leven is nu oneindig veel beter'. Dat was een heftig statement van me, dat ik mijn leven verkoos boven de muziek. En de ironie is dat ik een dag later weer aan het schrijven was! Ik wil niet ineens spiritueel worden of zo, maar volgens mij zaten God en de engelen in de hemel zo van: 'goed zo, meid, nu mag je je inspiratie weer terug. Want je was bereid het allemaal op te geven'."
Met het nieuwe album in de schappen denkt Hart voorzichtig aan de volgende stap: het heroveren van haar vaderland. Als haar bezoek aan Amsterdam erop zit, keert ze terug naar Los Angeles, op zoek naar een platenlabel voor 37 Days. Haar eerste twee platen Immortal en Screaming for my supper waren in de VS behoorlijk succesvol, maar toen Hart vervolgens echt goed ontspoorde hield haar platenmaatschappij het voor gezien. Leave the light on verscheen slechts in Denemarken, Noorwegen en Nederland. ,,We kregen verder nergens voet aan de grond en zelf een Amerikaanse tour opzetten kost kapitalen. Misschien dat het nu wel lukt. Mijn moeder zegt altijd: 'Beth, ik hoop zó dat je een keer succes gaat hebben'. Ik zeg dan altijd: 'mam, ik ben heel populair in Nederland hoor'. Maar ik denk niet dat ze me gelooft, haha."
Begin van 'cleane' carrière
"Succes kan me weer neerhalen"
door Imco Lanting
2 november 2007
Het zou zo goed zijn voor zangeres Amy Winehouse als ze eens op de thee zou gaan bij collega Beth Hart. Laatstgenoemde kan namelijk als geen ander meepraten over de overweldigende ervaring van succes en hoe dat je naar de rand van de afgrond kan brengen. En Hart kan als geen ander vertellen over de lange weg naar volledige recovery en de angsten waarmee ze nu haar carrière nieuw leven inblaast. 8WEEKLY sprak de Amerikaanse zangeres, bekend van L.A. Song, vlak voor haar Nederlandse tour die volgende week begint.
Ze neemt je volledig in beslag met haar grote helblauwe ogen, die je doordringend aankijken vanonder een baseballcap en haar brede stoere vrouwenlijf, bedekt met tattoos. Toch voel je aan alles dat hier een kwetsbare vrouw zit, zij het met een heftig randje. Daarom gaat de vergelijking met Amy Winehouse op. Winehouse die niet komt opdagen bij optredens, aangehouden wordt met drugs op zak; het zijn herkenbare zaken voor Beth Hart. Het enige verschil is dat Hart haar destructieve patroon heeft doorbroken en een nieuwe start maakt. Met alles. Hart: "Ach weet je, het is zo zielig allemaal. Ik kon een jaar lang helemaal niets. Niet lopen, niet praten, zelfs shoppen ging niet en dat is toevallig wel een van m'n grote hobby's, haha. Maar dramatischer was nog dat zelfs zingen me niet lukte. Ik voelde me een plant. I messed myself so up. Dat was de situatie. Ik moest het van heel ver halen om ergens licht aan de horizon te zien."
Scott
Om de haverklap verwijst Beth naar de strohalm in haar leven, haar man Scott, die verderop aan de bar zit. Het is al vroeg in het gesprek duidelijk dat ze zonder hem hier niet zo goed als volledig genezen verklaard zat. Hij kwam als een engel haar leven binnengezeild en heeft een cruciale rol gespeeld bij de omslag, zoveel is duidelijk. Hart: "Het belangrijkste dat ik heb geleerd van hem, en dat sleept me door alles heen, is eerlijkheid. Ik was niet eerlijk tegenover mezelf, tegenover anderen. Ik deed me beter voor dan ik me voelde. Deed alsof het succes dat ik kreeg, vooral nadat L.A. Song eind jaren negentig een megahit werd, me gelukkig maakte. Maar ik kon het gewoon niet aan. Dat was friggin moeilijk toe te geven. Scotty hielp me daarbij."
Hart is een gevoelige dame en in combinatie met haar stoere gedrag maakte haar dat juist nog kwetsbaarder. Hart: "Ik wilde altijd een mannelijke rockster worden. Robert Plant en John Fogerty waren mijn muzikale voorbeelden. Maar ondertussen waren Vincent van Gogh, Jezus, Beethoven en Janis Joplin mijn echte helden. Allemaal hypergevoelige mensen, die enorm geleden hebben en niet al te prettig aan hun einde zijn gekomen." Hippie-icoon Janis Joplin is op het favorietenlijstje van Beth Hart een geval apart. Beider stemmen bleken zoveel overeenkomsten te hebben - de uithalen, de schurende klank - dat ze gevraagd werd voor een hoofdrol in een off-Broadway show rondom Joplin. En in feite was dat de nekslag voor Hart. Hoewel ze al af en toe in het geheim dronk, ging ze zich door haar rol zo identificeren met Janis Joplin dat ze zich aan het einde van het liedje elke dag lazarus zoop. Hart: "De show werd veel te realistisch voor me."
37 Days
Nu ze van de drugs en de alcohol en zelfs de sigaretten verlost is, vult Hart haar leven met gezonde hobby's. Hart: "Ik sta vroeger op dan ooit, ga dan joggen rond het meer bij ons huis in Los Angeles. Ik voel de zon, de lucht, ik hoor de vogels en voel me gelukkiger dan ooit." Het lijkt er af en toe op dat de zangeres zichzelf met haar woorden nog moet overtuigen van de keus om haar destructieve leventje te laten voor wat het was.
Hoe het ook zij, in de praktijk is Beth Hart een nieuwe, cleane episode in haar leven begonnen en de eerste voor het publiek zichtbare vrucht daarvan is de recent verschenen cd 37 Days. Hart: "Het snelst opgenomen album uit mijn carrière. In 37 dagen was het gedaan inderdaad. Een niet te ingewikkelde titel, bovendien zijn de drie en de zeven en opgeteld de tien de krachtigste cijfers uit de numerologie."
Bush-regime
Ook het nieuwe album staat weer vol met de zielenroerselen van Hart, al is 37 Days logischerwijs optimistischer dan voorganger Leave the Light On, ten tijde waarvan ze nog zwaar onder druk stond van publiek en pers. Hart: "Er straalt positiviteit van deze plaat uit, al trek ik in Sick en Face Forward Son nog wel van leer tegen het Bush-regime. Ik vind dat ik dat moet doen, met zo'n 'total friggin asshole' als leider. Ik zou hersendood zijn als ik niet zou protesteren tegen dergelijke machtige personen. Maar dit is al met al het eerste album waar ikzelf graag naar luister."
Met het uitkomen van dit nieuwe album 'dreigt' natuurlijk het succes ook weer om de hoek te komen. Hart: "Ik ben daar heel bang voor, het wordt een zware uitdaging voor mij. De afgelopen jaren ben ik weer in een relatieve anonimiteit beland, wat ik heerlijk vind. Dat kan nu weer veranderen. Maar ik word nu omringd door liefdevolle mensen, waarvan Scott de belangrijkste is. We zullen zien wat de toekomst gaat brengen. Ik heb in elk geval de zin in optreden weer terug en daar ga ik eerst maar eens enorm van genieten."
Het album 37 Days is uitgebracht door Universal. Beth Hart staat de komende weken door heel Nederland. De meeste concerten zijn al uitverkocht (Haarlem, Amsterdam, Den Haag, Utrecht, Tilburg, Groningen). Er zijn nog wel kaarten te verkrijgen voor de concerten in Lucky & Co (Rijssen) op 8 november, en in de Harmonie (Leeuwarden) op 13 november.
English
Beth Hart
Live At Paradiso
by Jonathan Keefe
Posted: September 12, 2005
My first substantial impression of Beth Hart came during the summer of 1999. She was the third-billed performer (behind, if memory serves, Paula Cole and Goo Goo Dolls) on an episode of VH1's Hard Rock Live, and her single, "L.A. Song," was in the midst of its run as a modest hit at Adult Top 40 radio. After an unremarkable performance of the requisite hit ballad, Hart stood up from the piano and launched into "Am I The One," a cut from her debut album Immortal. Unprepared for the higher profile earned from "L.A. Song" and her sophomore album, Screamin' For My Supper, Hart had developed an addiction to Klonopin. Emaciated, wild-eyed, and generally looking like dug-up death, Hart proceeded to deliver a blues ”in the purest "Kenny Wayne Shepherd wouldn't know what hit him" sense of the term performance the likes of which I'd never seen before, nor have I seen or heard since. She wasn't just wrestling with personal demons in that performance, she outright flayed those demons on stage in front of God and everybody. Like Jeff Buckley at his most transcendent and sounding like Janis Joplin reincarnated with Stevie Nicks's high-speed vibrato, Hart turned the act of singing into an out-of-body experience, something both intensely physical and tangibly metaphysical.
At the commercial break, I immediately got into my car and went to buy copies of both Immortal and Screamin' For My Supper. Though each album contained a few memorable tracks, not even the studio version of "Am I The One" hinted at Hart's greater capacities. When her follow-up single, "Delicious Surprise" (currently climbing the country charts, thanks to a completely lifeless cover by the thin-voiced Jo Dee Messina), failed to build on the success of "L.A. Song," Hart, like so many artists who never make that final big push into stardom, faded into obscurity, at least in the U.S. Her personal trials continued unabated during this time she was dropped by her label, shrank to 98 pounds, and ended up in jail for a DUI and I wondered if I would ever hear of her again, let alone if she'd ever release something that lived up to that singularly jaw-dropping performance.
On a tip from a friend I didn't even know liked Hart, I found out that, in fact, she did release something worthy of her phenomenal talent. While Billboard rightly referred to her as "the stuff of icons," her 2003 album Leave The Light On. Leave The Light On was nonetheless a representation of the raw, exposed nerve endings that make up Beth Hart and her music. Just two years old, it's an album that sounds like classic rock, and if it had any real flaw, it was that Hart still sounded restrained by the studio recording process.
did not find the massive audience it deserved. Chronicling her struggle toward sobriety, Hart produced an album of such confrontational, uncompromising honesty and gritty, hard-living detail (after all, she'd been addicted to various drugs since she was 11 years old) that it was even more astonishing a statement for its fundamental optimism. If only two of its tracks ("Broken And Ugly" and the wry "Monkeyback") reflected what an unparalleled blues singer Hart is,
Live At Paradiso takes care of that.
Recorded in 2004 at a show in Amsterdam while on a wildly successful European tour, Paradiso draws its 13 performances from a DVD released in March 2005, and it is the first time since that one-off, mid-afternoon VH1 show that the enormity of that voice has been done justice. The tracklist is unassailable, including the best songs from her first two releases (a nine-plus minute rendition of "Am I The One" and the title track from Immortal; "L.A. Song,""Delicious Surprise,""Mama," and "Get Your Shit Together" from Screamin' For My Supper), the previously mentioned rockers plus the three singles ("World Without You,""Lifts You Up," and the title track) from Leave The Light On, and two choice covers. Even on the relatively subdued, Adult Top 40-ready songs like "Leave The Light on" and "L.A. Song," Hart goes for broke in her deliveries, singing as though entirely unbeholden to constructs of what conventional singing should sound like.
But the bulk of Paradiso consists of harder-driving rock numbers that give Hart ample opportunity to belt, growl, and snarl until there's not much room to doubt that she's the best rock and blues singer alive. She reinvents Randy Newman's "Guilty," and when she wails, "I just can't stand myself," she does so in a way that channels what sounds like a lifetime worth of pain. That's the kind of singer Beth Hart is, and she's the only singer I've heard since Janis Joplin who can lay bare such intimate emotion without making a person feel like an eavesdropper for having heard it. And, whether it's the self-deprecation of "Broken And Ugly" or the undiluted desperation of "Am I The One," there's at least one such moment on every track on Paradiso, and the run of songs from "Lifts You Up" to "Mama" is essentially one protracted gut-check. And then there's the album-closing cover of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love," which Hart delivers so aggressively that it makes the entirety of Sleater-Kinney's brilliant The Woods sound demure and outdated in its sexual politics.
Hart's band skillfully manages the task of keeping pace with her (guitarist Jon Nichols, in particular, gets plenty of room to show off), though their arrangements do occasionally lack her fearlessness. And, as is the case with most live albums, the audience banter is of limited charm. The sheer joy Hart takes in performing for and interacting with an appreciative crowd, however, keeps that banter from becoming tiresome at least through the album's 17th listen. I won't vouch for it beyond that. The power of Hart's music, on the other hand, remains fully intact every time. Finally, gloriously, Beth Hart's recorded performances match the weight of her best-written material. "They'd call me an icon," she sings in "Delicious Surprise."Billboard got it right. And with Live At Paradiso, it's high time that everyone else got it too.
Muziek tegen de nachtmerries
Interview met Beth Hart
door Jan Auke Brink
20 mei 2004
"Hi, we just bought a new bed!" Pardon? Wat is er gebeurd? Het is half twaalf 's ochtends LA time en zangeres Beth Hart begint meteen te praten als ze de telefoon opneemt. "Het is een heel gaaf ding, ontwikkeld door de NASA. Het matras is van bijzonder schuim. Als je daar je hand oplegt, blijft de afdruk staan als je je hand weer weg trekt. Dus als ik 's ochtends opsta, kan ik nog zien wat ik afgelopen nacht gedaan heb. Echt cool."
Beth Hart is duidelijk een open persoon, die geen strak onderscheid maakt tussen publiek en privé. Op Leave The Light On, haar in maart uitgekomen derde album, zingt ze zonder terughoudendheid over de worsteling met haar drugs- en drankverslaving, tijdens optredens speelt ze expliciet met haar seksualiteit en ook tijdens ons gesprek blijkt Hart bereid over alles te praten. "Sommige journalisten verwijten me dat ik zo open ben. Zij vinden dat ik op Leave The Light On te persoonlijke dingen vertel, maar voor mij zijn die teksten juist heel belangrijk. Ze zijn healing."
Beter door de drugs
"Toen ik verslaafd was, waren er dagen waarop ik het leven helemaal niet meer zag zitten. Ik had niet het gevoel dat ik het nog langer verdiende om te bestaan; ik speelde vaak met gedachten over de dood. Maar gelukkig was Scott, mijn huidige man, er toen altijd voor mij. Hij hield van mij, en sleepte me er steeds weer doorheen." Verlangen naar de drugs en de drank doet ze niet meer, maar Beth Hart kent nog altijd dagen waarop ze moeite heeft met het leven. "Mijn probleem is dat ik geen zelfvertrouwen heb. Gisteren had ik een goede dag, toen was ik enthousiast en ging alles lekker. Maar vannacht had ik veel nachtmerries, daardoor zie ik erg tegen vandaag op. Het liefst zou ik heel de dag in bed blijven."
De muziek houdt Hart op de been. Zodra het met haar verslavingen de beterende kant op ging, begon ze ook weer nummers te schrijven. "Leave The Light On komt uit die periode. Er was geen platenmaatschappij die tijdens de opnames binnen kon lopen en kon zeggen "dit moet anders en dit moet de radiosingle worden": het was alleen maar ik en de band. Samen maakten we een pure plaat die weerspiegelt wat er in die periode speelde. Het schrijven en het opnemen van die nummers hielp me destijds echt. En nog altijd: erover praten is nog steeds goed voor me. Het klinkt misschien raar, maar achteraf bezien ben ik zelfs dankbaar voor die periode. Als je zoiets verschrikkelijks hebt meegemaakt, kom je er weer sterker uit. Ik ben nu een beter mens, ik kan nu meer liefde geven en ontvangen."
Zonder maatschappij
Haar eerste twee albums, Immortal (1997) en Screamin' For My Supper (1999), bracht ze uit bij Atlantic Records. Toen werd ze overal ter wereld in één keer in de markt gezet, maar dat is nu anders. "Ik had een contract voor twee platen, en daarna wilden ze me niet meer omdat ik een drugsverslaafde ben. Dat ik voor deze nieuwe plaat goede nieuwe nummers schreef interesseerde ze geen reet. Het gaat bij de grote labels alleen maar om geld: om goede muziek geven ze niks! Het gaat erom hoe vaak je op de radio wordt gedraaid en hoeveel ze aan je kunnen verdienen.
Nu moet ik in ieder land een aparte platenmaatschappij overtuigen dat ik de moeite waard ben. Leave The Light On is daardoor eerst in Nieuw Zeeland uitgebracht, daarna in Amerika, en nu dus in Nederland. Daarom ben ik momenteel ook zo veel in Nederland: de handel moet gepromoot worden. Over een paar maanden wordt de plaat in Denemarken uitgebracht. Dan zal ik daar wel weer veel gaan optreden."
Spelen
En dat vele optreden werkt: haar Nederlandse reeks begon in januari met een akoestische set op Eurosonic en ging eind april, begin mei voort met een serie uitverkochte concerten in onder meer 013 Tilburg en Paradiso Amsterdam. "Dat laatste optreden was het beste optreden dat ik ooit gegeven heb. Het was zo geweldig! Paradiso is een prachtige zaal en het was helemaal uitverkocht. Ik had nog nooit voor zo'n groot publiek gespeeld dat speciaal voor mij kwam. Op festivals stond ik wel voor meer mensen, maar dit was voor mij heel bijzonder: al die mensen die hadden betaald om mij te zien."
"Optreden vind ik het mooiste van mijn vak. Het is beter dan platen opnemen en liedjes schrijven, omdat je meteen resultaat ziet. Door de muziek kun je mensen vrolijk maken. Als ik zie dat de mensen zich tijdens een concert vermaken, dan voel ik me belangrijk. En dat is weer goed voor mijn zelfvertrouwen."
Dat vermaken van mensen lukte goed in Paradiso. Ze maakte een grote groep fans intens gelukkig door van het podium te stappen en een nummer te zingen terwijl ze door het publiek liep. Later ging ze voor het podium op de grond zitten, waarop een groot deel van de zaal uiteindelijk gehurkt naar haar luisterde. "Dat was een prachtig moment. In juni ben ik weer in Nederland. Hopelijk kan ik dan een akoestisch optreden geven in Paradiso. Dan wil ik niet op het podium staan, maar in de zaal zitten. En dan wil ik niet alleen spelen, maar ook verhalen vertellen. Dat gaat in ieder geval gebeuren. Als het niet in juni is, dan wel in september, want dan kom ik ook weer naar Nederland."
Anouk kicks ass
Tja, het is hard werken om de Nederlandse ziel en radio te veroveren, maar het gaat in ieder geval de goede kant op voor Hart. Ze is al geboekt voor Parkpop in Den Haag (27 juni) en speelt in Tivoli Utrecht (5 juni) en Bosuil Weert (6 juni). Het meest kijkt ze echter uit naar het optreden dat ze 8 juni in Zaandam samen met Anouk zal geven. "Anouk is een geweldig mens en een hele goede zangeres. Ze zou heel groot kunnen worden in Amerika. Ik speel straks in haar voorprogramma, maar ik hoop dat we ook samen een nummer gaan doen. En anders ben ik al blij als ik mee kan doen als achtergrondzangeres bij Anouk. She really kicks ass!"
Beth Hart: Honest to goodness
November 22, 1999
From Serena Yang
CNN WorldBeat Correspondent
LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Beth Hart, considered by many fans to be a latter-day Janis Joplin, is scoring international success with her latest album, "Screamin' for My Supper." The 27-year-old Los Angeles native says her singing and songwriting are all about being honest, something she attributes to musical legends who came before her.
Hart began her musical career at age 4 when she took up the piano. She says her tastes evolved from Ludwig van Beethoven and J.S. Bach to Aretha Franklin and Etta James.
"I loved the blues and that sweaty, stinky thing so much because it seemed so totally honest," Hart says. "And it's the roots of America. It's the roots of 'old school,' you know?"
That I'm-going-to-do-it-anyway attitude is a hallmark of Hart's singing, a style that draws those comparisons to 1960s rocker Joplin. As a teen-ager, Hart says, she heard the comparison so often, she decided to learn more about Joplin. "I think I was around 19, and I rented a videotape on her and watched it and just loved it. I thought that she was really honest and vulnerable."
Hart says it was seven years before she landed a deal. "I'd been trying to do this since I was 15, sending out the demo tapes and doing all the things that everyone told me that I should be doing. But no deal -- like never," she says. "And I was getting bummed. I was 22 and I was thinking, 'You know, forget it. I'm just tired of trying to get a deal.'
"Within two months of giving all that up, I met David Wolf, my manager, and he had us auditioning for Atlantic (Records) within a few weeks."
In 1996, she released her first album, "Immortal," and supported it with a nine-month international tour. Hart would soon learn she was nowhere near finished paying her dues.
A double-edged deal
"When you hear someone say to you, 'Yeah, you got a record deal,' you think that's it, a dream has come true," Hart says. "'We're going to make music, we're going to tour, we're going to have a great time, life's going to be a peach' -- and no, no, no, no, no.
"So we got on the road and just slowly but surely, we just crumbled apart and ate each other alive." The Beth Hart Band broke up when the tour finished, and she retreated to Birmingham, Alabama, where she'd made some friends during the tour.
After five months there, Hart decided to return to Los Angeles and began working on "Screamin' for My Supper." One of the biggest hits from the album is "L.A. Song," a semi-autobiographical story of how a relationship-gone-bad gave Hart the courage to put her life onto the right track.
"This time around," Hart says, "it was just like, 'Let's talk about the truth here -- how are we really feeling?' And not worry so much what people think. It just takes like a little faith, you know?"
Beth Hart
Los Angeles, California
Beth overcame alcohol and anxiety medication addictions that were sabotaging her creative career, and today this artist's songs are climbing the charts.
"I feel music is something that was given to me to make me happy, something to enjoy. All of us are so gifted in so many ways." |
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MY FAMILY
We were such a close and loving family. My mom and dad had a pretty cool marriage for 15 years. Then all of a sudden, my dad started gambling and drinking, and dating another woman, and ended up in jail. Our family got turned upside down, literally overnight. I was about 4.
WHEN I DISCOVERED ALCOHOL AND DRUGS
In 4th grade my stepsisters and brothers and I took some beer from our step dad and went outside and drank it outside the house. In 5th grade I started drinking more, doing coke and speed, anything that would be at any party. When I went out and partied and got really high or drunk, I would forget about who I felt like all the time: an outcast. I didn't get along with anybody, I didn't belong, I didn't like myself.
MY SISTER
My sister Sharon had started using when she was 16. When I was really young, like 11 or 12, I would go out to clubs and party with her and snort coke. I looked way older than my age. I finished growing when I was in 4th grade and I'm 5'9". Sharon started shooting up heroin pretty much right away; she got AIDS from using. She died at the age of 32.
SKIPPING SCHOOL
I was very depressed, and I would make it to high school at about one o'clock in the afternoon. They expelled me, saying I couldn't skip the academic classes and just show up for music class. I really think I knew then I was an alcoholic, because from the get-go, I was drinking until I blacked out. Because I was and am a person who can be really over the top, insecure, and super-sensitive, bringing about self-destruction was, in a way, a painkiller.
RUNNING AWAY
I was in a relationship with a guy when I was 14. He was 24. I ran away with him to Brooklyn. He was physically abusive, and a big heroin addict. The first day I moved to New York, I started snorting heroin with him. I left him and came home, but he followed me back. I stayed in that relationship for 4 years. After that I got into another abusive relationship with a guy for 8 years. I think I felt I didn't deserve anything better.
MY FATHER
I had a lot of abandonment issues with my dad, and then with my step dad and his kids. I really bought the idea that I was no good. When I was drinking I could go into my own fantasyland and become somebody else. When my dad got out of jail, he wouldn't have anything to do with me. I wasn't allowed to call the house. When I got a deal with Atlantic, that was the first time my father came to a show. I didn't see him. I was really angry.
TOURING WITH THE BAND
I'd been using on and off with whatever drug was around, but always consistently alcohol. In 1996, when I went on tour for my first album, "Immortal," I switched my alcohol addiction to a food addiction: starving and purging, another form of destructive behavior. When that record was over, I started picking up again, then tried to get clean again. Then I went out on the road, and said, forget it, I'm just going to drink and have a good time. The success of "L.A. Song" (an adult top-40 hit from 1999's "Screamin' for My Supper" album) absolutely terrified me. I had never had a success of that measure in my music before. I was trying to deal with it by getting myself as drunk as I could, every day. And by starving myself to death. Because I felt I had to be thin in order to make it. I ended up setting fire to our bus, and the band threatened to leave. I was basically told, " You have to stop drinking."
MY DEEPEST ADDICTION
I went to a doctor who gave me a choice of different non-narcotic drugs. I manipulated him into giving me Klonopin, pretending I didn't know what it was. Actually I had tried this anxiety medication before and it had gotten me really high. He put me on it, and immediately I did stop drinking. Because I didn't need to drink any more. I was getting high, and all of my anxiety and fears were being dispersed way better than what alcohol had done for me. So that was the ultimate worst thing it was the thing that finally worked. I abused it to the hilt. Within a nine-month period, I went down to 98 lbs. I was so, so scary-looking. I was going on these shows, and I would walk out to the piano, and the audience would breathe in. You know, that murmur that runs through the house. I had become a full-on junkie. I wanted Klonopin and that's all I wanted. It just brought my whole life down very quickly.
It was a really hard process to get off Klonopin because I didn't want to. I'd found what worked. I'd found what made me really skinny, what made me not care, what made me not afraid. Nobody could hurt me with their judgments. If I made it, I made it. If I didn't make it, I didn't make it. I was fine as long as I had my Klonopin.
MY LAST TIME
It was never black and white, never like, oh, this is it. I went through three rehabs, four lock downs, and one jail, over a period of one-and-a-half years. Even though I was trying hard! Addiction it's a mind-boggling disease. My Klonopin use got so bad the doctors refused to prescribe it to me. I started heaving and detoxing at home. I was totally like, "I'm not going into rehab! Hell, no!" Until one night, my boyfriend (he's my husband now) was taking care of me. He thought I was going to die that night, and so did I. He put his arms around me and he started crying. It was a major moment in just making me feel like someone really, really loved me, even in this place of total darkness. And it made me just want to go in for help.
ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY
I went into Las Encinas in Pasadena. I was so sad and angry and lost. I didn't care about my life. I just knew I didn't want to die in Scott's house. At Las Encinas they gave me medications to keep me from seizing. My first day there, someone said, "It's going to get a lot harder before it gets better." I didn't understand why it's so hard for people to stay clean. For me, it was because once you begin to wake up after your drug stupor, you're left with all that shame and that feeling, What did I do to my life, to my family, my friends and to opportunity? I couldn't walk right and I had panic attacks. A counselor said, "It's the Klonopin. It's going to take your brain time to adjust back to normal. If you stay sober, you will get back to normal. But you have a lot of recovery work to do. Once you're an alcoholic addict, you're always an alcoholic addict."
I just didn't understand any of this, and I certainly didn't have any patience. I'd never grown up. I'd been using for so many years, I didn't know what else to do. The miracle that began happening, was that slowly I started wanting to get clean. But I was not healthy. I was trying to kill myself. My attempts took place at 27 and 28 years old. At 29 I started coming out of it. I began to heal myself by getting into 12-step recovery, praying, eating healthy, not doing any medication. I haven't done Klonopin or any other drugs since then, and January 6th, 2003 was my last time with booze.
WHAT WORKED FOR ME
My life today is a billion times better than when I was on Klonopin, and I think it's totally due to being a part of 12-step program: being with other people who are alcoholics and addicts, working with them. Realizing addiction is a disease. That there's nothing to feel guilty of. You wouldn't tell someone with cancer to be ashamed, and it's the same with this disease. Instead of looking at my life at the things I didn't get, I started looking at the things I did get. I'm healthy, I can sing and hear and see, and I can love and be loved, and I can learn and grow -- those are really God-given wonderful gifts. Counting my blessings, and giving thanks for them has been my number one tool of recovery.
MY MUSIC
During the really tough times, I stopped writing. I was embarrassed to even go to that piano. Then I started feeling like I had done so much talking to God, that it would be cool to go back and do a little writing. My album "Leave the Light On" to me is about getting to a point where I'm doing my damnedest to tell the truth. Whether people like me or don't like me, at least I know that I don't have to work so damn hard at being who I am. Because I'm just a human being who makes mistakes like everyone else. I feel music is something that was given to me to make me happy, something to enjoy. All of us are so gifted in so many ways. Maybe getting out there now and showing people what I really enjoy doing can inspire people to find the many gifts they have inside.
