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I'm pondering my future in the music business. I been just kind of sittin' around, watching the music business change, you know, because with digital albums, the Internet and all that downloading and things, the record business is changing man. -Alvin Youngblood Hart |
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In spring 2007, Hart was invited to record pre-World War II era blues and string band music for the soundtrack to the Denzel Washington directed, Memphis-based drama The Great Debaters. Hart led a roster including soul singer Sharon Jones and the Carolina Chocolate Drops, recording the soundtrack in Memphis' famed Ardent Studios. Hart, who was briefly featured in Martin Scorsese's 2003 PBS blues series, even makes his silver screen debut as "Juke Joint Musician No.1" in the film's opening scene.
 Alvin Youngblood Hart |
"It turned into a summer job," he says. "[On the soundtrack] we pretty much ran the gamut of what was going on musically at that time. It was cool, you know, like I said, when you're 15 playing in the garage, you don't think 'Man, I'm going to play some music in a Hollywood movie someday.'"
Though he doesn't resemble a man liable to find himself seduced by the sinful scent of Hollywood, Hart says he found soundtrack work intriguing and cost-effective. "It's a fun challenge. I really like being in the studio, and especially," he emphasizes, "on someone else's dime."
A day after this interview, Hart, along with the Allstars, unofficially opened their tour with a performance at the inauguration party for Haley Barbour, the Republican Governor of Mississippi. Hart will testify a gig is a gig, and even politicians get a rock 'n' roll jones on occasion.
"I played a gig in Utah a couple years back," Hart recalls, "and the governor happened to be there and really dug it. And I did a gig in Jackson [Mississippi] last summer at the governor's mansion and I played as loud as I could!"
In concert, Hart seamlessly bounces, much to the displeasure of blues purists hollering for another tired rendition of "Sweet Home Chicago," with scant warning from his inventive originals to covers of Doug Sahm, Tom Petty or Tampa Red. And if you don't like it, well, sorry pal, that's your problem, not Hart's. The Stevie Ray Vaughan clone is on some other stage.
Hart's musical eclecticism stems from his childhood, which found him moving from his family's roots in the Mississippi Hill Country to the Oakland Bay Area, Chicago and Ohio.
After being introduced to the blues via his father and his grandmother - Hart's real-life "big mama" - he cultivated an indiscriminate love for American music, and a healthy disregard for genres. Hank Williams, Thin Lizzy, Sonny Rollins and Sleepy John Estes all share equal esteem in Hart's musical hierarchy.
 Alvin Youngblood Hart by Larry Hulst |
"I spent my early years in the Bay Area in the late '60s, early '70s," says the 44 year-old Hart. "I was too young to go to any of them Fillmore shows, but I saw the posters and the bills on some of the posters, you know, Miles Davis and Cream on the same bill. To me, it's all music."
When asked about his thoughts on the year-round blues festival circuit, which Hart has reluctantly frequented for more than a decade, he responds with a weary indifference.
"I try to avoid [the blues festivals]," he says. "A lot of people that go to these blues festivals, they don't dig the solo stuff at all. They surely don't like my band, so the booking agencies, they'd book my band on some really kind of strict, humpty-dumpty stages. It's unfortunate, but that's the way it is."
Hart's history with booking agents and the festival circuit has been a quarrelsome union at best.
"My band can't get booked on a lot of these circuits," he said. "I've had agents tell me they've tried to book me at festivals like Bonnaroo, and they were like, 'No go.' I just try not to think about it. Whatever form I'm playing, I just try to do my best."
His coast-to-coast tour with the Allstars pairs Hart together with familiar comrades on the battlefield. Memphis rock 'n' roll stalwart Jim Dickinson, the father of the Allstars' Luther and Cody Dickinson, produced Hart's 1999 album, Start With The Soul, and later played keyboards on Motivational Speaker.
During the Start With The Soul sessions at the eldest Dickinson's Zebra Ranch Studio in summer '99, Hart was asked to play guitar on "Drop Down Mama" for the Allstars' Shake Hands With Shorty album. An avid champion of Hart's artistry, NMA guitarist and lead singer Luther Dickinson once warmly introduced his "homeboy" Alvin onstage as "an original Allstar."
"It's gonna be a cool tour," says Hart. "I'm gonna do my solo acoustic thing first and then we'll see what happens. I love playing with those guys, always have."
After the Allstars' tour, Hart went across the Atlantic, where he collaborated in Europe with his friend Otis Taylor on what he terms "a banjo project." [Editor's note: Taylor's Recapturing The Banjo was released February 5, 2008. Look for a discussion of the project with Taylor in the coming months here on JamBase].
As for Hart's proposed retirement from the recording industry, he readily acknowledges the difficulty in jumping off the train at this stage of his journey.
"Ah man, I'm too far gone now."
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