Beth Hart - You Still Got Me

Beth Hart comes out swinging on You Still Got Me, her first collection of original songs in five years and a 2024 reminder that few singers can make a blues shout feel this personal.

Hart has always worked the space between barroom belter and confessional songwriter, and after the inward pull of War in My Mind, this record finds her loosening her shoulders. Producer Kevin Shirley cut the sessions in Nashville and keeps the band lean and punchy, letting that remarkable voice do the heavy lifting.

Savior with a Razor arrives with Slash riding shotgun, his guitar coiling around Hart's growl like smoke around a stage light. Suga N My Bowl brings Eric Gales in for a greasy, swaggering duel, and Wanna Be Big Bad Johnny Cash leans into outlaw grit with a sly grin. Then the tempo drops for Little Heartbreak Girl, a fan-favorite ballad born from a hard stretch in her life, and the room goes quiet.

That range is the whole point. One minute she is stomping through roadhouse rock, the next she is singing as though nobody else is in the building, and both feel equally true.

For listeners who know her from her records with Joe Bonamassa or her fearless live shows, this is Beth Hart sounding entirely like herself, rough edges and all.