The cosmic American love child of Howlin Wolf and Link Wray'
Known as a 'musician's musician,' Alvin Youngblood Hart's praises have been sung by everyone from Bob Dylan to guitar gods Eric Clapton & Mick Taylor.
Mr. Hart was born in Oakland CA in 1963 to a family of post WWII Mississippi transplants. After a couple false starts, he began to play the guitar, in earnest, in 1977.
'By that time, it had become an obsessive competition among us teenage boys. The guitar was the video game of our day', Hart says.
The Hart family was never one to stay put. Spending his formative years on the West Coast, in the Midwest and the Mid-South surely influenced Alvin's wide ranging musical perspective.
'It really taught me to appreciate MUSIC for what it was - not because it was this or that genre. I have a great disdain for genre segregation. I try to avoid that practice'.
Along with his 40 years of playing comes a nuts and bolts passion for the hardware of the trade.
'I've been a guitar tinker since day one. I can recall my parents buying me a new guitar, and I would have every screw out of it by bedtime'.
Hart is also an electronics technician, a talent he picked up after 7 years active duty in the U.S. Coast Guard. His knack for quick thinking repairs on the road has earned him nicknames such as, The Garage Guerrilla or The Rock N Roll MacGyver from fellow musicians.
After two decades on the road ,Alvin continues to delight audiences worldwide, whether as a solo performer or with the eternally rockin' Alvin Youngblood Hart's Muscle Theory' The multi award winner always delivers.
'When I was a 15 year old kid in my room , I would never believe that I would someday play legendary venues like the Hollywood Bowl or Royal Albert Hall. You couldn't have told me that I'd be in the studio with Taj Mahal, or play onstage with the Allman Bros. Band and
For more information on Alvin Youngblood Hart's career, check out the following documentaries:
The Soul of a Man (Wim Wenders)
The Blues: A Musical Journey (Martin Scorcese)
Last of the Mississippi Jukes (Robert Mugge)
Rumble - The Link Wray biography
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"Boy got thunder in his hands! Sure does!" ... "Alvin Youngblood Hart is that rare breed who brings cultural awareness and artistic expression into a vibrant, natural marriage. His skills as a multi-instrumentalist command attention. His grasp of the idioms, tone, humor, joy and breadth of the Afro-American acoustic music tradition is extraordinary. His music is pure pleasure and surprise." TAJ MAHAL
"...one of the most original and exciting artists of this generation." RETRO
"Hart transcends labels and genres with his unique, soulful sound." GUITAR PLAYER
"Impressive isn't the word . His is a huge talent." LONDON INDEPENDENT
"Hart is something else. Dizzingly versatile." MOJO
"Hart's eclecticism puts him in a class of his own." THE INDEPENDENT
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