Alvin Youngblood Hart

Alvin Youngblood Hart ( born March 2, 1963 in Oakland, California) is an American blues musician from Memphis, Tennessee. Hart plays acoustic and electric guitars, as well as banjo and mandolin. His surname Youngblood refers to his Indian ancestors.

Alvin Youngblood Hart is regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of the country blues of his generation, although he has with his recordings always exceeded the limits of the genre and stylistic diversity shown. As a child, came hard on his music-making parents and grandparents to Delta blues. His guitar playing, he developed based on the blues record collection of his parents and the recordings of Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones. His music, nourished by all American music traditions, he calls himself now as hard Americana.

With his debut album Big Mama 's Door, the Sony Music released in 1996 on the Okeh Records label, hard earned by the press as well as musicians like Taj Mahal, and Eric Clapton positive reviews. The following year, Hart was named best newcomer to the toilet Handy Award.

The successor Territory, with the hard already moved from a pure acoustic country blues away and his stylistic range of Country, ska and rock extended, was chosen by the American music magazine Down Beat and Living Blues each album of the year. He also received this year the Living Blues Award for Best Guitarist, 2004 as the best guitarist and singer. With Start With The Soul Hart went one step further and made it clear with soul and Southern rock elements that he does not want to be stuck in a stylistic drawer. The New York Times chose the CD of the ten best albums of the year 2000., The British BBC named her blues record of the year.

For the Down In The Alley Album Hart returned to the acoustic country blues. Here he sang the blues of his idols Bukka White, Leadbelly, Charlie Patton, Skip James Sleepy John Estes or on restored instruments and published the result as a monophonic recording. The album was nominated in 2003 for a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album ( Best Traditional Blues Recording).

In 2003, the hard band project JoB Cain, in which Audley Freed was in from the Black Crowes. The band developed a harder guitar blues-rock, which was expressed on the following album Harts Motivational Speaker.

Hard occurs both solo and with his band Muscle Theory. Occasionally he is also to be found on stages in Germany. Alvin Youngblood Hart lives in Memphis, Tennessee.

Discography

• Big Mama 's Door ( Okeh / Sony Music 1996)
• Territory ( Hannibal Records / Rykodisc 1998)
• Start With The Soul ( Hannibal Records / Rykodisc 2000)
• Down In The Alley (Memphis International Records 2002)