If there’s one singer whom you know sings while wearing her heart on her sleeve or her bare tattooed arm, more likely, it’s Beth Hart. Whatever she sings, she goes for it, she holds nothing back, submerging everything she has into whatever she’s singing and making it her own, which has been the basis of her career thus far, and it’s this quality which prompted blues giant Joe Bonamassa to comment “Beth Hart’s got it all, man, she’s the real deal.”
Beth is living proof it’s okay not to be okay. Life isn’t always easy, it’s often a struggle and the hand you’ve been dealt might not win the jackpot, but overcoming this takes strength from the inside, and it’s this strength which has propelled Beth Hart forwards in her career.
You Still Got Me is her follow-on from 2019 War In My Mind, although she has released an album of Led Zep covers in between. It’s an album which sees her flexing her vocal muscles and performing a range of tunes that encompass rock, blues and even a torch ballad. The album starts with the gorgeous bluesy rocky ‘Saviour With A Razor’, which sees Slash all over it, offering up some electrifying riffs next to Beth’s powerful vocals, and it’s a pity he didn’t feature further on the album as his playing here is a highlight. ‘Wanna Be Big Bad Johnny Cash’ sees Beth Hart giving us a playful modern take on Cash’s Boom-Chicka-Boom style “.. cool and quick, whisky on his breath, he sang his songs like he was cheating death ..” for several years this is exactly what he did. The Cash influence is also present in ‘Never Underestimate A Gal’, a morality tale sung in Johnny Cash style.
Beth is not just about the rock though. ‘Drunk On Valentine’ sees her connect with her inner Tom Waitts on this tender, smoky barroom ballad, right down to the underscored strings and sleazy trumpet, suggesting she has a future as a chanteuse should she want it. The title track ‘You Still Got Me’ tells us that no matter how bad things get, we have each other. ‘Wonderful World’, is “A song written for the lineage of women in my family,” and a ballad seeped with optimism about the future. She also touches on life in the US with the dramatic and upbeat, ‘Don’t Call The Police’, about the murder of George Floyd “Don’t call the police if you wanna live another day,” which even gives us the choking sounds Floyd made as he lay dying, and it’s as raw and powerful as ‘Little Heartbreak Girl’ is twee.
Beth’s not this generation’s Janis Joplin, she’s this generation’s Beth Hart and her new album proves Bonamassa was right in his call. Her vocal style may not earn her a place at the top table but, when she gives it her all, not too many do it better.
You Still Got Me is out October 25th via BMG
