Beth Hart's recent album, "Screamin' for my Supper," is aptly titled. Her performances evoke not-too-distant memories of an emotionally wrought Janis Joplin and a not-yet-known Joan Osbourne.
But she's not going to fill the E Center -- yet. And anybody who caught her brief opening set at last December's Jingle Ball (with Def Leppard and Train, among others) knows her free spirit shows through in her wardrobe . . . or lack of one.Hart is also not apt to take a break for very long. She and her band will be playing at Liquid Joe's tonight, just three months after her last stop here. The show begins at 8 p.m. For ticket information, call 801-467-5637.
Known mostly for her single, "L.A. Song (Out of This Town)," Hart just loves to give the crowd an honest show and remain vulnerable herself.
"When I play in front of a crowd, there comes this sense that I'm going to my favorite therapist -- he's there and it's honest," Hart said by phone from her tour bus just after performing in San Francisco. "If they like you, they like it. If they don't, they tell you.
"There ain't nothing like the truth,"
Hart's second album maintains the honesty she yearns for, from songs about her struggle with alcoholism to a bluesy love song for her mother ("Mama"). It's raw emotion like that that won her the lead in a musical about Janis Joplin, titled "Love, Janis," in Cleveland.
The 23-year-old singer-songwriter plans to tour for this album for a while, with two more singles ready for release. And she'll always be singing, no matter where it is.
"Nobody can ever take the music away from me," Hart said. "I'll be on my back porch playing some raggedy blues -- that's God to me. It's something no business can ever take away."