Interview: Beth Hart

Beth Hart was last in town in 2015 when she sold out the Colston Hall in support of Better Than Home and it was a great show. Since then she’s written and recorded a new album Fire on the Floor and is over in the UK with live dates. Yes the Colston is on the itinerary again, and yes, she’s sold it out again. Beth willingly submitted to the vinyl enquirer and her answers reveal a few surprises:

What was the first record you ever bought and where did you buy it?

I have no idea what was the first record I ever bought but I think I asked my mom to buy me…um…a collection of Beethoven when I was a little girl because I became very addicted to his music. It might have been piano sonatas

What was the most recent record you bought and where did you buy it?

Oh god, I don’t know, sorry my brain is a little slow, I’ve been doing a lot of promo…I’m sorry, I have no idea! Wait, oh yeah: I was in a cab today and the cab driver’s daughter has a record and he played it for us and it was pretty awesome Maco (?) and the name of the record was Moonwriting. So there you go.

What record do you stick on the deck to sooth your soul?

Well there’s a really great record that I found, that I bought from these street musicians in Milan but it wasn’t Italian music and it wasn’t even by Italian musicians but it was by Native Americans that were dressed in full head dress with the feathers and everything. It was amazing – they looked beautiful but the music was even more beautiful. At the top of the record it just says Indians, American Indians. It’s ridiculous, it’s just so good.  

Have you bought a record on the basis of a great single and then been disappointed by the rest of the album? If so, tell us all about it…

No, because I don’t really listen to radio but when I was younger and I did, I don’t think I would ever buy a record – I would ask certain people about an artist and get a tape compilation of an artist but I when I first get a record I always expect not to get it because it’s brand new material coming my way and I notice the pattern is the more I don’t get it (straight away) the more I fall in love with it; whereas if get it right away, if it clicks with me right away then after a few weeks I just end up being bord out of my mind with it! But one of the best records is The Idler Wheel, which is the last Fiona Apple record and it’s just so out there but god is it brilliant, if you give it enough plays you just can’t even believe how incredibly unique and special…she’s a wonderful pianist and wonderful writer & singer. I just love her.

What record do you turn up to maximum to get in to that party mood?

I really love Dinah Washington and anything live from her – she had some of the greatest Jazz musicians in the whole world and sometimes she would be wth a big band and sometimes she’d just be on stage with a muted trumpet, upright bass and a piano. So anything she did and all those great songs, all those great singers covered them but she just killed it, she was so great. And Laverne Baker, I love Laverne Baker – late fifties, just killer, an amazing singer: Jim Dandy.

If we had the ability to land you at the recording of one classic LP so you could witness the whole recording process, what would you choose and why?

I knew the answer to this before I even finished reading the question! So there’s this great live recording of Etta James when she was probably in her forties I assume, anyway she’s playing in front of only about sixty people at the most in a supper club and it is re-fuckin-diculous. The singing, the musicians, she’s got Shuggie Otis, Red Holloway; just phenomenal musicians, phenomenal songs but doing them so different than her records. I was never really a fan of her recorded albums; but it was this album, this live album that absolutely floored me. It’s called Blues in the Night – Volume 1 the Early Show.

Ever bought a record solely because you liked the sleeve? If so, what was it and did it delight you or disappoint you?

The first Black Sabbath album, with the witch with the beautiful green eyes. And I was never an Iron Maiden fan but Number of the Beast has a super scary cover,

Oh no, your house is burning down and you can only rescue one record! What would it be and why?

Easy, Beethoven Piano Sonatas. Very fuckin’ easy.

What’s your favourite record sleeve? Tell us all about it (and whether or not the music gives you as much pleasure as the sleeve).

I think Number of the Beast because it’s so scary, I think I prayed that night before I went to bed… “Oh god don’t let them get me!”

Morbidity alert: what record would you like played at your funeral?

I actually have the answer to this one and I was just telling my husband it the other day: Louis Armstrong What a Wonderful World, I would like that, I love that song and it is such a wonderful world.

Pic Mona Nordoy