Beth Hart W/ Connor Selby Review: Birmingham Symphony Hall 09/03/2023

One of the most soulful and capable singers of her generation, the supremely talented Beth Hart is stunning on record and a revelation on stage. With her most recent album bravely tackling the songs of Led Zeppelin (“when I was asked to do this, I said hell motherfucking no!”), Beth seems charmingly unaware of the fact that, of all the singers treading the boards today, she is surely the most qualified to reimagine the sublime vocals of Robert Plant. As a result, when her band launches into a crushing When The Levee Breaks, she asks the audience not to throw things. She needn’t have worried. This is surely one of the most anticipated tours of 2023, not least because there’s the little matter of 2019’s War In My Mind, a stunning album that Beth barely got to tour before the lockdown put an end to it all. With her crack band comprising the gifted Jon Nichols on guitar, the serene Tom Lilly on Bass and the awesome talent that is Bill Ransom on drums (if you can create a rhythm on it, he’s got it on stage) Beth Hart cuts a joyful figure as she surrenders herself to the music, and it is arguably the most engaging performance I’ve seen to date.

Connor Selby

First, however, we have the hotly tipped Connor Selby opening proceedings. Nominated at the UK Blues awards for Acoustic Act Of The year, Instrumentalist Of The Year and Blues Vocalist Of The Year, Connor is a rising star who has already opened for The Who at Wembley Stadium and shared bills with Pearl Jam, Stereophonics and Johnny Marr. With his self-titled album recently released, Connor provides the calm before the storm, offering up a thirty-minutes trad-blues set that seems to engage the audience.

He opens with Falling in Love Again, a solid start that finds Connor in good voice. One of the standout tracks from his recently-released self-titled effort, it has a more polished feel than material such as The Deep End (featured on the album as a bonus track), which tackles the subject of sacrificing comfort for your dreams. It’s a decent enough track, but like many of the songs aired tonight, there’s a sense that this is a solid pastiche of the blues of BB King and Buddy Guy and it will be interesting to see how Connor carves out his own identity as he restlessly tours in support of the album. We do get a glimpse of this with final number Emily. Leaving the best to last, it’s an energetic set closer and another strong song from the new album. If it is a sign of where Connor is headed, I can only see his star rising in the coming years.

Beth Hart

Apparently possessed of a desire to give the older generation a heart attack, Beth announces her imminent arrival with a hip hop track, which makes perfect sense when the band arrive and launch into a blistering Love Gangster. I’ve seen Beth hit the stage with force before, but this time she’s a veritable tornado, whipping through the lyrics and wrapping herself up within the music. Here, and throughout the performance, Beth is like a tightly coiled spring, and you never quite know in which direction it’s all going to go. Surprisingly early in the set we get the oh-so-familiar drum beat of When The Levee breaks announcing a blistering take on the Led Zeppelin’s treatment of the song. Beth may profess to nerves, but she delivers a knock-down performance that has the audience screaming for more.

A brief interlude finds Beth at the piano for a pair of tracks that are delivered alongside some great stories. Beth is well known for her honesty, but it’s her wonderful sense of humour that shines most brightly tonight as she treats us to sparkling versions of As Good As It Gets and Love Is A Lie (“I wrote a bunch of songs about killing a guy”). Yet, for all the great musicianship on display, it’s actually the ramshackle Ugliest House On The Block that proves the most endearing. Played rough and raw by Beth on guitar, it’s an expletive laden, brilliantly heart-felt piece that feels like the missing link between the quirky alt-pop of Soul Asylum and the singer-songwriter elements of Tori Amos. It’s a lovely song and, as is so often the case, Beth demonstrates that rare ability to make the auditorium disappear, leaving the sense that she’s singing just for you.

Back at the piano, we get a stunning rendition of Bad Woman Blues and an even better War In My Mind, the latter written for a pastor who helped Beth get clean (with great success) and give up swearing on stage (with variable success). It’s got a chorus to die for and you can feel the raw emotion running through it. In contrast, Love Is A Fever dips its toes into jazz, while Living In The City nods to a Bette Middler lyric. Referencing her friendly pastor once more, Beth tells of her struggle to quit swearing on stage, a revelation slightly undermined as she tries to hide a devilish grin throughout the impish Wash Your Feet You stinky Motherfucker!

There’s more. As Beth keeps the audience focused on the piano, the stage is quietly rearranged for a semi-acoustic set that sees a sublime reworking of Sugar Shack and a countryfied reinvention of Can’t Let Go. There’s something magical about hearing an artist take a well-worn song and give it a whole new life (see: Clapton’s stunning unplugged reworking of Layla), and with her band firing on all cylinders, this is precisely what Beth does. The stripped-down set ends with Beth sat splay-legged on the floor, watching Jon Nichols interpolate Voodoo Chile into a mesmerising For My Friends, a masterstroke that has the audience hanging on every moment. Oh, that all performances could be so utterly heartfelt.

Beth Hart is not only one of the greatest singers out there, she is also an artist who wears her heart entirely on her sleeve. This is a dangerous vulnerability in a world inclined to beat you down, but Beth has (albeit not without significant struggle) managed to draw on that energy to become a deeply compelling performer. Depending on the night, you may find Beth reflective or suffused with energy, but in Birmingham she is irresistibly bouncy, and the wild set list reflects the sheer enthusiasm with which she takes the stage. It’s impossible not to be swept up in it and, when I look back on this very special show, my overriding memory will be one of deep joy. Beth Hart is a very special artist indeed – long may she run.