The Kennedy Center Honors show-stopping performance of Jeff Beck and Beth Hart’s “I’d Rather Go Blind” that paid musical tribute to blues legend Buddy Guy in December, will be included on Hart’s upcoming album, Bang Bang Boom Boom, due out in North America on April 2, 2013 (Provogue Records/Mascot Label Group). The soul-searing performance elicited a spontaneous standing ovation from the audience that included President and Mrs. Obama as well as honorees Guy, David Letterman, Dustin Hoffman, Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones, and ballet dancer Natalia Makarova.
As Michael Stevens, the show’s producer said, Hart’s performance was “like the Bettye LaVette moment that we had four years ago – someone relatively unknown coming out of nowhere and the house falling apart and giving her a standing ovation.”
(Click here to view Beck and Hart performing “I’d Rather Go Blind” at KCH.)
Hart first began her collaboration with Jeff Beck when she was the featured vocalist on his 2006 tour, and the two have remained great friends and mutual admirers since. When the Kennedy Center Honors producers approached Beck to pay tribute to Buddy Guy, he expressly asked for Beth to join him.
The “I’d Rather Go Blind” track was produced by Michael Stevens and the Kennedy Center Honors’ Musical Director Rob Mathes. The musicians include Mathes on piano, Jeff Beck on guitar, bassist Zev Katz, drummer Charley Drayton, Michael Bearden on Hammond-B3 and keyboards, guitarist Keith Robinson, Jeff Kievit on trumpet, Brad Leali on alto sax, Lou Marini on tenor sax, trombonist Dion Tucker, and Kim Wilson on harmonica.
Bang Bang Boom Boom was produced by Kevin Shirley (Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Joe Bonamassa, Jimmy Page/The Black Crowes, Dream Theater), and features eleven stunning blues, rock, jazz and soul-infuenced tracks, all written or co-written by Hart, recorded live at Revolver Studios in Thousand Oaks, CA and mixed at Shirley’s Malibu, CA studio in early 2012. For the recording, Shirley assembled an extraordinary group of musicians: long-time “Late Show with David Letterman” drummer Anton Fig (Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen), bassist Michael Rhodes (the Dixie Chicks, Reba McEntire, Faith Hill), keyboardist Arlan Schierbaum (Joe Bonamassa, John Hiatt), guitarist Randy Flowers (Meat Loaf, Wynonna Judd), and drummers Curt Bisquera (Josh Groban, Mick Jagger, Elton John) and Herman Matthews (Stevie Wonder, Sheryl Crow, Celine Dion).
Bang Bang Boom Boom is a life-changing endeavor for the Los Angeles-born singer, songwriter and musician, who brought her life experiences, both positive and negative, together for what one European outlet called “a career-defining album.” With many shows already sold out, Hart will launch her first U.S. headline tour in more than a decade on April 30 in Austin, TX. The confirmed itinerary is below.
APRIL
30 Stubbs Indoors, Austin, TX
MAY
2 Hat Tricks, Dallas, TX
4 3rd & Lindsley, Nashville, TN SOLD OUT
5 3rd & Lindsley, Nashville, TN SOLD OUT
7 Smith’s Ole Bar, Atlanta, GA
9 The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA
11 The Blockley, Philadelphia, PA SOLD OUT
13 City Winery, New York, NY
16 City Winery, New York, NY SOLD OUT
17 City Winery, New York, NY SOLD OUT
