Alvin Youngblood Hart (born Gregory Edward Hart; March 2, 1963) is an American musician.

Career

Hart was born in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, and spent some time in

Carroll County, Mississippi Carroll County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 9,998. Its county seats are Carrollton, Mississippi, Carrollton and Vaiden, Mississippi, Vai ...

, in his youth, where he was influenced by the Mississippi country blues performed by his relatives. Hart is known as one of the world's foremost practitioners of

country blues Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in t ...

. He is also known as a faithful torchbearer for 1960s and 1970s guitar rock, as well as western swing and traditional country. His style has been compared to

Lead Belly Huddie William Ledbetter (; January 20, 1888 – December 6, 1949), better known by the stage name Lead Belly, was an American folk music, folk and blues singer notable for his strong vocals, Virtuoso, virtuosity on the twelve-string guita ...

and

Spade Cooley Donnell Clyde "Spade" Cooley (December 17, 1910 – November 23, 1969) was an American convicted murderer and former Western swing musician, big band leader, actor, and television personality. In 1961 he was arrested and convicted for the Ap ...

. Bluesman

Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal (; ) is an Islamic ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1631 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mu ...

once said about Hart: "The boy has got thunder in his hands." Hart himself said, "I guess my big break came when I opened for Taj Mahal for four nights at

Yoshi's Yoshi's (also known as Yoshi's Jazz Club and Yoshi's Oakland) is a nightclub located in Jack London Square in Oakland, California, United States. The venue originally opened in 1972 as a restaurant in Berkeley, later moving to Claremont Avenue i ...

." His debut album, ''Big Mama's Door'', was released in 1996 on Okeh Records. In 2003, Hart's album ''Down in the Alley'' was nominated for a

Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album The Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album was awarded from 1983 to 2011 and from 2017 onwards. Until 1992 the award was known as Best Traditional Blues Performance and was twice awarded to individual tracks rather than albums. The award w ...

Albums

* ''Big Mama's Door'' (1996) * ''Territory'' (1998) * ''Start With The Soul'' (2000) * ''Down In The Alley'' (2002) * ''Motivational Speaker'' (2005)

Awards

* W.C. Handy Award for best new artist – 1997 *''

Down Beat ' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chi ...

'' magazine award for best blues album of the year for ''Territory'', 1999 *

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

in 2005 for producing and contribution to the compilation album, ''

Beautiful Dreamer "Beautiful Dreamer" is a parlor song by American songwriter Stephen Foster. It was published posthumously in March 1864, by Wm. A. Pond & Co. of New York. The first edition states on its title page that it is "the last song ever written by Steph ...

References

External links

Alvin Youngblood Hart
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hart, Alvin Youngblood 1963 births American blues guitarists American male guitarists American blues singers American male singers Living people Slide guitarists Musicians from Oakland, California Contemporary blues musicians Grammy Award winners Singers from California American blues mandolinists Guitarists from California 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American male musicians

Career

Albums

Awards

See also

References

External links