Alvin Youngblood Hart

About the Artist

Born in Oakland, California, guitarist/singer/songwriter Alvin Youngblood Hart moved around the country with his family wherever there was work to be found: Southern California, Ohio, Illinois. Along the way, Hart listened to music wherever he could find it, be it his parentsÆ records, the ever-present radio or on ChicagoÆs Maxwell Street. The most lasting impressions of his youth came from frequent trips to his grandmotherÆs home in the hill country of northern Mississippi, where bloodlines on both sides of his family run back for generations. On those visits, Hart found people living a lifestyle that was time out of mind and he developed an affinity for certain traditions.
Those excursions to Mississippi led him to a deep appreciation of his acoustic blues forebears and he steeped himself in their music: Charlie Patton, Leadbelly, Bukka White, Blind Willie McTell, Skip James and others. He began to collect all manner of vintage stringed instruments, learned to play them, and eventually to restore them.
Hart joined the Coast Guard in 1986, and he ended up stationed on a riverboat in Natchez, a few hours ride from the family home. At that time he began to play regularly in front of audiences. Seven years in the Coast Guard took him from Natchez to New York to Bolinas, California, where he found a niche in the Bay Area music scene. He got several local gigs there in 1990, and, a year later, made his first appearance at the San Francisco Blues Festival.
Over the past two years, Hart has toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe. He has also appeared on national tours including the Further Festival and House of Blues Presents, played electric guitar with the Brothers Band, and supported musicians ranging from Neil Young, Los Lobos, Richard Thompson and Ben Harper to blues greats John Lee Hooker, Taj Mahal, Buddy Guy and Gatemouth Brown. In addition to headlining his own club dates, Hart has played major festivals throughout the world, from Australia to Norway.