By Jason M. Rubin

Blues singer Beth Hart wields the hammer of the gods with easy finesse but also deep emotion.

Beth Hart in action. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Beth Hart, the powerhouse blues singer who is both a riveting interpreter of other people’s songs and a fearlessly honest singer-songwriter in her own right, concluded the first leg of her 2022 Thankful Tour with two successful nights at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston on March 9 and 10. This writer caught the second night, which probably was for the best because the show was longer and Hart and her band seemed committed to going out with a bang from the very start.

That start comprised a solo version of Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” — not reported to have been performed at any other show on the tour to date, and no doubt a statement about the war in Ukraine — with Hart playing the piano and delivering a soulful vocal. Although she rocked hard at many points in the show, she actually spent almost half the night solo on the piano or in duets with her bassist and her guitarist, which this writer thinks was too much of a good thing. There could have been more rocking going on. Still, because so many of her songs deal with her history of mental illness and addiction, even when rendered solo and acoustic they have an emotional depth that is breathtaking.

Often compared with Janis Joplin, Hart encompasses the spirit and substance of other brilliant artists as well, such as Amy Winehouse, Lou Reed, and maybe even Ronnie James Dio. There is an air of danger in her performances. Dressed in skin-tight black leather pants and a sparkling black halter top, with black glovelets on her hands, Hart prowled the stage like a panther, either stalking among her musicians or crouching on the edge of the stage, ready to leap out at the audience. One almost expected UFC fighter Ronda Rousey to come out on stage and challenge her to a bout. This writer would have put his money on Hart.

Part of that sense of danger, of course, comes from knowing you are watching a survivor — one who could possibly have a downturn at any moment. At different points in the concert, Hart talked about her father’s addiction to gambling and how he left her at a young age, her sister’s death from AIDS, and her own struggles with bipolar disorder. In her song “Leave the Light On,” she sang, “Seventeen and I’m all messed up inside/I cut myself just to feel alive.” In “War in My Mind,” she sang, “There’s a war in my mind/Seek and ye shall find/That it’s hollering all the time.” Hart’s songs contain the most brutally revealing lyrics since Joni Mitchell’s Blue.

And yet during the show the slim, muscular 50-year-old also radiated a strong positivity. She hugged bandmates after certain songs. She not only introduced them — Jon Nichols on guitar, Tom Lilly on bass, and Bill Ransom on drums — but also thanked them during the performance. Hart also expressed genuine gratitude to the audience; one could imagine that the strength it takes for her to go onstage — battling her demons for our entertainment — is derived in no small part from the support she receives from an adoring crowd. This was certainly the case at the March 10 show, where every confession of hers was met with compassionate applause.

Though the current tour is named for a song from her 2019 album, War in My Mind, and she played seven of its 12 songs in concert, Hart’s most recent album, released just last month, is A Tribute to Led Zeppelin. From this recording she only did four songs — “Dancing Days,” “When the Levee Breaks,” “No Quarter,” and “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” — and these she did all in a row, starting right after the opening Sam Cooke tune. Perhaps in the next leg of the tour Hart will devote more time to the tracks in the newer release. Her renditions gave no quarter — they were uniformly exciting and intense. Hart wields the hammer of the gods with easy finesse but also deep emotion. In interviews about the new album, she has spoken about the cathartic qualities of Zep’s music, which provides an outlet for her anger. Other artists Hart covered in Boston were Al Green (the funky “Rhymes”), Tom Waits (the irreverent “Chocolate Jesus”), and Etta James (the searing “I’d Rather Go Blind”).

Hart is no stranger to Boston or to the Wilbur, so one hopes it won’t be too long before she’s back. As asserted in “It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll” by the Rolling Stones, we want our favorite artists to bleed for us, to go to the uncomfortable edges of experience — be it with drugs, sex, gender identity, or antisocial behavior — and report back to us what they’ve learned. Beth Hart has accepted that challenge and through hard work, deep faith, and an almost unworldly vocal gift, has emerged strong in both body and mind. That’s good for her, and good for her audience.

Opening for Hart on this leg of the tour was Quinn Sullivan, a 22-year-old guitarist and songwriter from Massachusetts whose prodigious talent has led him to play with the likes of Buddy Guy and Carlos Santana, and to perform three times at the Montreux Jazz Festival and at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival. This writer had never heard of him until this show but emerged with a Jon-Landau-discovering-Bruce-Springsteen type of admiration. Not only for his guitar playing, but also his original songs — which show a mature gift for melody — and his expressive voice. Joined by bandmate Chris Bloniarz on mandolin and piano, “Mighty Quinn” Sullivan (this writer said it first and hopes it will catch on) played about half a dozen songs, including a cover of Derek and the Dominos’ “Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad,” and earned an enthusiastic standing ovation at the conclusion of his opening set. With a new album out (his fourth) called Wide Awake, this is a guy to keep an eye on.

Jason M. Rubin has been a professional writer for more than 35 years, the last 20 as senior creative associate at Libretto Inc., a Boston-based strategic communications agency where he has won awards for his copywriting. He has written for Arts Fuse since 2012. Jason’s first novel, The Grave & The Gay, based on a 17th-century English folk ballad, was published in September 2012. His current book, Ancient Tales Newly Told, released in March 2019, includes an updated version of his first novel along with a new work of historical fiction, King of Kings, about King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Jason is a member of the New England Indie Authors Collective and holds a BA in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.