Beth Hart’s bio to this point in her 20-plus-year career is very nearly a blues cliché. A youthful beginning, doing great work while toiling in obscurity, struggling with alcohol and substances intended to keep her centered and grounded. It’s a boilerplate blues story, told many times with slight variations. Thankfully, Hart’s recent triumphs have counterbalanced her ancient travails. Last December, Hart took the stage at the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, D.C., along with guitar icon Jeff Beck, and performed Etta James’ classic “I’d Rather Go Blind” to celebrate Kennedy Center honoree and blues legend Buddy Guy. Hart’s scorchingly soulful vocals and Beck’s sinewy guitar lines brought Guy and the audience to their feet; that performance has been added to the commercial pressing of Bang Bang Boom Boom (Provogue/Mascot), Hart’s powerfully diverse new album. Hart will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new feature on her.
Hart: I always have a small book filled with my beloved’s prints and some writing of his life on my piano. When I’m in the middle of writing and I begin to be frustrated, I turn to this little book and his paintings and sketches to give me hope and calm. His work also reminds me to write from the most honest of places, and that is through a child’s eyes. My perception of what I’m trying to say simplifies, and I feel the point instead of trying to analyze it. I love Van Gogh. He is my favorite painter by far. He took a canvas and turned it into hope and love. 
Video after the jump.
