A co-headliner tour featuring Beth Hart and Kenny Wayne Shepherd brought two distinctly different styles of blues rock to Hard Rock Live in Orlando Friday night August 10th. Beth Hart started off the night with a set that showcased her strong vocals and songwriting.
Hart opened the set with the backing band playing onstage with her voice booming across the theater, though she was nowhere in sight. She then appeared behind the crowd, singing as she walked through the crowd, high-fiving fans as she made her way to the front and climbed onstage. Though that was the extent of her theatrics, Hart knows how to work a crowd, frequently praising the crowd for a warm reception and singing along, telling a lot of stories in between songs, and treating the 5,000-person venue as if it was her living room.
Emotional, heartfelt lyrics are a strong suit for Hart, who introduced many of the songs with a story about their meaning and why they are an important part of her life. She introduced the soulful piano ballad “Bottle of Jesus” by talking about how her faith helped her overcome addiction. The powerful “Tell Her You Belong To Me” was introduced with a story about how when her parents divorced when she was young, her mother didn’t let her father see the children. “I wrote the song to him,” she said, “asking him to work it out so we could see him.”
Hart and the band mixed in several upbeat rockers throughout the set, such as Gospel-tinged rocker “Delicious Surprise” and the thumper “Love Is a Lie.” She is at her best, however, in the ballads, sitting at the piano and emptying every ounce of emotion out of her soulful vocals. Her voice is dynamic, ranging from a fragile whisper to a powerful boom. While singing an impassioned rendition of “Take It Easy On Me,” Hart wiped tears from her face.
To further highlight her vocal prowess, Hart ended the set with two solo songs, alone onstage at the piano, her voice powerful enough to deliver gravitas without a band accompaniment. Ending the show with “Leave the Light On,” Hart wowed the crowd as her voice crooned, belted and screamed, all while singing a moving story about child abuse. It was Hart at her best, with intense lyrics to match the intensity of her voice.
Kenny Wayne Shepherd took the other route for blues rock, focusing less on soulfulness and more on rocking out. The guitar hero took center stage, even though Noah Hunt sang most of the songs, with his blazing solos and unrelenting fretboard mastery.
Though the band sprinkled in a couple ballads, Shepherd’s setlist was focused on upbeat tracks that showed off his guitarwork. Opening the set with “In 2 Deep” and “Never Mind,” two shredding rock songs from 1999’s Live On, the band set the tone early, only slowing down for the fourth song, the affecting ballad “Heat of the Sun.”
Shepherd sang lead vocals on a couple songs, such as the cover of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “The House is Rockin’” and the strutting “Down to Love” off the band’s current album, Lay It On Down. For the most part, though, Shepherd focused on his six-string attack. Hunt played more guitar than during past tours, but still awkwardly had nothing to do for large parts of the set, often disappearing backstage during Shepherd’s long guitar solos.
Those solos were the main feature during Shepherd’s performance – the strong vibrato, endless sustain, and ridiculous speed that have made him a guitar legend over the last two decades. With the exception of fan-favorite “Blue on Black,” every song had at least one lengthy solo/show-off session. “While We Cry,” which ended the regular set, is an instrumental song that is almost entirely Shepherd showing off in much the same way that Vaughan did with his rendition of “Little Wing.”
For the encore, Shepherd closed the set – as he often does – with a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile.” During the performance, Shepherd paid homage to some of Hendrix’s guitar tricks, such as a portion of the solo being performed with only the left hand and another portion done behind his back.
Hart and Shepherd both delivered engaging, powerful blues rock performances while commanding the stage. Hart commanded it with her soulful vocals and tear-jerker songs while Shepherd did it with his lightning-fast fingers and deep string bends. It was a good night for the blues.
