The Cosmic American Love Child Of Howlin Wolf and Link Wray!!! Known as a "musician's musician", his praises have been sung by everyone from Bob Dylan to Brit guitar gods Eric Clapton & Mick Taylor. Since his 1996 debut recording, the all-acoustic BIG MAMA'S DOOR, Alvin Youngblood Hart has carried his musical message the world over. A devout follower of the 'no barriers' approach laid by veteran performers like Gatemouth Brown and the late great Doug Sahm, Alvin continues to defy the so- called purists. After receiving the 1997 W.C Handy Award for Best New Artist, as well as 2 Living Blues Awards, Hart's 1998 release, TERRITORY, a rousing tribute to all forms of American music, received the Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll Award for Best Blues Album (and it wasn't even a Blues album). In the summer of '99 Hart teamed up with producer Jim Dickinson to begin recording START WITH THE SOUL. This record would be hailed as a new breed Southern Rock classic & Alvin's return to the "sacred garage" .START WITH THE SOUL was chosen in the New York Times top 10 releases of 2000 as well as the BBC's Blues record of the year. He also shared Living Blues Magazine's best guitarist honors with fellow road dog Big Jack Johnson in 2001. 2003 was a busy year. Not only was there a GRAMMY nomination, Hart also toured the world as a member of Job Cain, a hard rocking side project he put together with Cry Of Love/Black Crowes guitarist Audley Freed. In August of '03 Alvin was invited to fill in for Taj Mahal for five nights in Tokyo as a member of Kip Hanrahan's Conjure, the worlds longest running jazz poetry ensemble. Assembled to lend musical support to the words of Bay Area poet Ishmael Reed, Conjure featured the talents of tenor sax giant David Murray and also Meters guitarist Leo Nocentelli. Alvin is still a member of the revolving cast and recorded with them on the BAD MOUTH CD. In 2004 Mr. Hart received a Grammy for his contribution to BEAUTIFUL DREAMER :THE SONGS OF STEPHEN FOSTER. In the Summer of 2005 He released the self produced MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER,a rock guitar free for all, paying homage to fallen & missing rockers like Phil Lynott and Sly Stone. In 2006 Hart took time out to work on the film BLACK SNAKE MOAN .He served as a guitar tutor to star Samuel L. Jackson and recorded a duet with the film’s female lead Christina Ricci for the soundtrack.In the fall of that year Hart joined Austin dynamo Ruthie Foster and rock n roll legend Bo Diddley for a 2 month coast to coast US tour.Recently Alvin has thrown his talent into the educational arena.In April 2007 he participated on a tour of Mississippi high schools as a member of the Thelonius Monk Institute Of Jazz.
The Summer of ’07 saw Alvin hit the big screen as a juke joint musician in the Denzel Washington directed film,THE GREAT DEBATERS
Hart continues to tour the globe as a solo artist and with his Mighty Muscle Theory band..
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Let us tell you we have just released our new single: "Passing By" and 2 b-sides! 3 new songs up! Exclusive on our myspace page! We'll be very happy if you and all the people who love rock and roll check us out!
Alvin, great show Saturday in Richmond. Thanks for letting me film, for anyone that isn't paying attention this is Alvin, with Luther Dickinson, and Jim Mathus; The South Memphis String Band.... Mitch
My new live album "Tempo, musique pour calcaire et guitares" (music for limestone and slide guitars from a live concert in duet with Franck Kernel, stone carver) will be available for may 2009. I'm really happy with this project. You can watch a video (the last song of this 6 hours long work with interview) from this show here
Most of you Memphis folks know and love our good buddy Don Perry, photographer extraordinaire. Well, next Friday, 2/27, Don will be having a photo show at the Hi-Tone, and we'll be playing. I think the doors will open around 8 and you can come and check out Don's amazing pics, and even buy some. Don is doing really great work around town, documenting the music scene and the city of Memphis itself.
As usual, there's no opener. We'll start up around 10-ish, but get there before that so you can enjoy Don's photos without a couple of Fenders squawling in your ears.
The cover is - you guessed it - five bucks. See ya there!
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