July 8–15, 1999

critic pick|blues

Alvin Youngblood Hart

For a guy who’s won four major blues awards in recent years, including the W.C. Handy Award for Best New Artist, Alvin Youngblood Hart is oddly uncomfortable with the label "blues artist."

"I don’t consider it nothin’ but music," says the 36-year-old self-taught guitarist and singer on the phone from his Memphis home. "Diversity is not a promoted value in this country… so in order for this diversity principle to succeed, I like to stay away from labels."

Hart may well be right. You could call his music blues, but there’s a lot of other stuff happening too, especially on Hart’s recently released sophomore effort, Territory (Hannibal/Ryko). From the Hank Williams-flavored opening track, "Tallacatcha," to his take on Leadbelly’s "John Hardy" to the horn-crazy, ska-influenced "Just About To Go," Hart confidently stretches his own boundaries throughout the record. Much of his playing style derives from frequent trips to rural Northern Mississippi as a child, where he developed a love of acoustic blues by Charlie Patton, Leadbelly and Bukka White.

After spending seven years in the Coast Guard, Hart decided to commit himself fully to music in 1993. These days, in addition to touring and recording, he runs a small guitar repair shop with his wife, Heidi. It’s a place he’d like to spend more time if he weren’t on the road so much.

"It’s not my favorite thing, touring," he said. "I’d rather be working on instruments, but you’ve got to make a living." And being onstage does have its perks: There’s "something really good when people connect with the music for being real."

—Nicole Pensiero

Alvin Youngblood Hart performs Wed., July 14, 8:30 p.m., at Tin Angel, 20 S. Second St., 215-928-0978.