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And so it comes to pass that on the darkest day of recent history for Scotland’s capital city (or at least, for the maroon half of Edinburgh, for the green and white half, it’s like Christmas and Hogmanay both in one day), a glimmer of hope and salvation is offered up by LA’s finest, Beth Hart.
Since her maiden regional UK shows in 2011, Beth Hart has been a regular visitor to cities outside of London. Regular stops in Glasgow, every few years, but is this the first time that the tour bus has pulled up in Edinburgh? Answers on a postcard to…
If it truly is the first visit, then what a volatile night to pick. But as the famous adage coined by playwright William Congreve in 1697 goes, “Music has charms to soothe the savage breast.” And tonight, especially, there is a lot of soothing required in Edinburgh.
After a successful jaunt around Europe touring their latest release, ‘Salt Roots’, Cornwall roots rockers Wille & The Bandits hotfooted it back to the UK for this run of shows with Beth Hart. And as titular frontman Wille Edwards joked, since it was just himself and bandmate Harry Mackaill, they are performing as “Wille & The BANDIT”.
Acoustic sets can often be cookie-cutter-like, but proving that men can multitask after all, the pair cook up a full sound through the use of foot-operated percussion, and Mackaill switching between acoustic guitar and acoustic bass. A six-track acoustic EP is on the horizon, and tonight’s exceptionally well-received set is a glimpse at what to expect from said EP.
The choice of Soundgarden as the intro music is ideal, as Edwards is uncannily like the much-missed Chris Cornell. Both in looks (the same weather-beaten, straggly hair) and, more importantly, a voice to match. If you ever caught Cornell on one of his solo acoustic tours, then the opening pair of ‘Love Me When the Fire’s Out’ and ‘Got to Do Better’ will strike a chord, or two, while ‘Four Million Days’ has that same gritty, heartache that Cornell did so well. With Edwards equally at home on his trusty lap-steel guitar, as he is on a more traditional acoustic, it’s an easy-going, cool breeze of a set. Just what you would expect from a surfer dude from the South West of England. But as he joked before the lockdown-inspired ‘When the World Stood Still’, he sucks at fishing.
Knowing that most of her fans are lifers, Beth Hart constantly switches it up with regard to the setlist, and tonight is no different. Except for ‘Bad Woman Blues’ and ‘Leave the Light On’, it’s an entirely different setlist from last time around, in Glasgow in 2023. Coming a year after releasing her Led Zeppelin tribute album, the 2023 show was quite blues-rock centred and covers-heavy. Tonight, with 2024’s ‘You Still Got Me’ (her first studio album of original material in five years) still fresh in the memory, it’s a smorgasbord of original material – both old and new – mixed with a few choice covers from her albums recorded with Joe Bonamassa.
Sadly, the intro music from 2023 has been dropped, meaning no ‘Boats and Hoes’. Interestingly, the choice of intro music is ‘I’m Letting Go of the Bullshit’ from Nick Hustles, AKA Nick Arter, a producer who uses AI-generated music in a satirical way (some beauties on his YouTube channel).
With very little fanfare or fuss, the band (Jon Nichols – guitar, Tom Lilly – bass, Todd Wolf – drums) takes to the stage and plugs in. Beth Hart quickly joins them, but, going against the grain, instead of the traditional full-pelt set opener, she soaks up the applause, pauses to talk to the crowd for a few moments, and then settles in behind her piano for a jaw-dropping version of 2015’s ‘Tell ‘Em to Hold On’. The band gradually comes in as the song starts to build, effortlessly cool; it’s a stunning way to start a show.
A seductive cover of Melody Gardot’s ‘If I Tell You I Love You’ has Hart sitting on the lip of the stage, swinging her legs playfully like an excited child, before a tale of how watching a TV interview with Leonard Cohen inspired 2016’s ‘Love Gangster’, and Hart is now on the move, off stage, and walking through the crowd as she sings. Hands are shaken, high-fives are given and received, and it’s great fun watching guys trapped like deer in spotlights as soon as the overhead spotlight lands on them and illuminates them for all to see. Working the crowd while Nichols peels off the first stunning guitar solo of the night, Beth finally makes it back to the stage as the song ends, to point out to the crowd that’s the first time that Todd Wolf has performed that song.
Wanting to dance, it’s slam-bang into ‘Wanna Be Big Bad Johnny Cash’, the first track to be aired from ‘You Still Got Me’, and toes are tapping, and hands are clapping. Nichols is coaxing some killer tones out of his guitar, but it’s the nailed-on basslicks from Tom Lilly that linger on the longest. Such a joyful, happy song, it’s impossible to resist. As is the quickfire one-two from the ‘Don’t Explain’ covers album, recorded with Joe Bonamassa in 2011; first up is ‘I’ll Take Care of You’, which features a heavy-as-balls jam after the false ending, Nichols is on fire, and then there is the jaunty, shimmering ‘Chocolate Jesus’, which is still great fun to witness live. Again, Jon Nichols is on fire. Smokin’ hot.
‘Bad Woman Blues’ is a highlight. Hart telling the audience (who, it has to be said, are deadly silent during the quiet parts of the set, and noisy when they are supposed to be) that she has “Got the lips, got the legs/I was born to drive a man insane/I don’t worry and I don’t shame/Put it on me, I’m the queen of pain”. One of her hookiest songs, the piano melodies are to die for, it’s a pure dance like nobody is watching moment.
The pairing of ‘Savior With A Razor’ with ‘St. Teresa’ is another highlight, and one that showcases the shades to be found within a Beth Hart show: on one hand, you have a stone-cold blues-rocker like ‘Savior With A Razor’, and then you have the starkness of a solo Hart at her piano for ‘St. Teresa’ where not a sound is heard from the crowd until the last note is struck, and only then does the place erupt.
With the venue having an early curfew, the plans to feature a multi-song encore are seemingly scuppered, with a crowd vote swinging in the way of ‘War in My Mind’. Spell-binding would perhaps be the best way to describe the four or five minutes that it runs. But as the band takes their bows and exits stage right, Beth calls Jon Nichols back for a scene-stealing, impromptu version of ‘There in Your Heart’ which has to be seen and heard to be believed. Beth Hart at her most vulnerable, on the edge of the stage, sometimes without amplification, essentially showing every other vocalist in the world how it is done.
There are not enough superlatives in the world to describe a Beth Hart show, so many ups and downs, darkness to light, differing emotions, but “Most Essential” is a good starting point.
How does a performer like Beth Hart leave the stage after a show like that? To Pantera’s ‘Walk’, that’s how – total baddass.
Review – Dave
All images – Callum Scott
Beth Hart – “You Still Got Me” – May & June 2026 UK Tour
Special guest: Wille & The Bandits (Acoustic Duo)
Tickets available from – https://www.bethhart.com/tour-3-2/
Gateshead, The Glasshouse International Centre for Music – Wednesday, May 20
Oxford New Theatre – Thursday, June 4
