Bridge – Todd Hart

Biography

Here’s basically what happened….

From his beginnings on the North Coast, Todd Hart has played his unique style of blues and classic rock all over the world. Enjoying great notoriety as an acoustic guitarist and playing coffee houses and acoustic venues for the formative years, his dedication grew. After a quick 2 year stint singing in the power band “Bush Rock” it was a clear course”, and in 1977, he formed what would be his musical home – “Todd Hart’s Blues Power Trio“.

Spending his early years as a young guitar maker in Cleveland’s Mayfield Music, then it’s oldest music shop Prospect Music, he worked on many of the masters guitars, and became good personal friends with the late Robert Jr. Lockwood – the nephew of legendary blues pioneer Robert Johnson, who took him under his wing, playing weekly at Cleveland’s famous underground blues/rock club ” The Flipside” for over 6 years, along with playing the usual mainstream venues: The Agora, The Euclid Tavern, The Mistake, The Pirate’s Cove, and other old Cleveland haunts. At that time, holding a fine record of 5 “WMMS Coffee Break Concerts” – 2 in the original broadcast booth with Denny Sanders, and three (or 4 maybe) at the Cleveland Agora on stage simulcast on that international station, 6 Kent State University radio shows as well as playing every club that campus had. Eventually with other great local notables: The Generators, Mr. Stress, The Numbers Band, Oroboros, the great Glen Shwartz, and friends, he gathered the popularity and support of friends and fans, and played for nearly 10 years on that circuit, becoming “Cleveland’s Original Rock n’ Roll/Blues Power Trio”, releasing his first vinyl album of the same name, and becoming a mainstay of the North Coast blues scene.

After ten years with the same bandmates and the untimely death of dear friend/bassist – R. Timothy Smith in 1984, Todd joined Kim Simmonds and his Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame band “Savoy Brown” as lead vocalist, and toured from Florida to the Northwest Territories, Newfoundland to British Columbia, and most points in between.

“I had an interesting task to try and reproduce a wide-range of different vocalists that were in that band. Almost every album had a different vocalist on it, and all with totally different voices doing songs ranging over a 20+year period. To replace sidemen or support players is one thing, but to replicate so many lead vocalists as on that many albums was a challenging task to do properly, but I knew all the tunes and really had a lot of fun. I enjoyed my time there and am proud of my work with Kim and Savoy Brown. We did a lot of shows over great distance in two countries”.

After some time and some differences, Todd left Savoy Brown and returned to his own music. PS: There are some newspaper pictures, articles, and live recordings from my time with Savoy Brown throughout this website (see below for example), so feel free to browse and enjoy.

Regrouping with a new spark and tons of new original songs, he repeated the basic beauty of his long-running power trio to form “Todd Hart and the Thang“. Touring out of Memphis Tennessee, and playing the Mid-South district from the Florida Keys to Arizona, for almost ten years, stopping only to record, yielding three albums of all original material including the “What Doesn’t Kill You – Makes You Stronger” CD ( 1992), which enjoyed fair commercial success. This was touring and really playing the blues in the original old clubs of it’s origin throughout the Memphis Blues Belt and into the deep south of the Mississippi delta.

Living alternately in Phoenix when time permits, he’s proud to be an Official Hell’s Angel’s support band for Arizona’s Mesa, Phoenix, & Cave Creek chapters, various California’s Hell’s Angels and national Harley-Davidson shows, and their many events over the years. Being an avid rider and playing Harley-Davidson, Titan, S&S, and custom cycle functions all over America, Canada, the familiar name “Todd Hart” and his “Blues Power Trio” are synonymous with international blues, A.B.A.T.E. and motorcycle events everywhere.

Over the years, and thousands of gigs, “Todd Hart’s Blues Power Trio” has regularly been performing on such classic world – class venues as: The World Famous-Blues Famous Memphis’ Beale St. music scene, The Cleveland, Akron, Painesville Agora’s, Harpo’s – Victoria, B.C., The Misty Moon – Halifax, Nova Scotia, The Nightshift – Edmonton Alberta, The Zoo – Winnipeg Saskatchewan, Cobo Hall – Detroit, Char’s, The Rhythm Room, The Blue Note, Jake – O – Mines – Phoenix, Jelly Roll’s, 544 Club, Dr. Breeze’s, The House of Blues – New Orleans, Rosa’s, Malo’s, The West End Club – Chicago, Club Soda’s in Vancouver and Montreal, The Caribbean Club – Key Largo, B. B. King’s Blues Clubs in Memphis, New Orleans, Chicago and Hollywood, The Cabooze – Minneapolis, The Whiskey A Go – Go, The Troubadour, The Starwood, Gazarri’s Crazy Horse in LA, a regular at Memphis’s “Rum Boogie Cafe”, “W.C. Handy’s Blues Hall”, “The New Daisy Theatre”, “The Stage Stop”, and well, you get the picture.

Jamming with and/or opening shows and events for such masters as: Robert Lockwood Jr., B. B. King, Buddy Guy, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Ruby Wilson & the King Bees, Hubert Sumlin, Koko Taylor, W.C. Clark, Elvin Bishop, Johnny Winter, Leslie West, Tab Benoit, Ted Nugent, Badfinger, Robin Trower, Jack Bruce, Mark Farner, Bob Seger, Leon Russell, The Stampeders, Jason and the Scorchers, Albert Collins, Albert King, Wm. Weasel Parker, Mick Ronson, and many, many more.

He now can be found playing various clubs and events in all the old favorite places, with all the same old friends. Still returning to his second home Arizona to fans and friends there, Memphis – “Home of the Blues”, and “Back again” to Melbourne, Australia, his favorite home far away. He’s continually in the studio writing new songs, recording, and completing his body of work, as well as touring select venues on the national/international blues circuit. And oh yeah, riding the Harley and surfing.

Hope to see you soon!

"Bush Rock" (L-R): bassist Clyde Deubel, Todd, drummer Steve Sinur, guitarist David Kloss, and guitarist Dan Young. I am 19 years old. (1973) — “Bush Rock” (L-R): bassist Clyde Deubel, Todd, drummer Steve Sinur, guitarist David Kloss, and guitarist Dan Young. I am 19 years old. (1973)

Dan Young (RIP) and Me (1974) — “Bush Rock” (L-R): bassist Clyde Deubel, Todd, drummer Steve Sinur, guitarist David Kloss, and guitarist Dan Young. I am 19 years old. (1973)

My connection with Savoy Brown:

I was lucky enough in the mid 80s to tour with the famous British blues band Savoy Brown, performing in the live, shows as their lead vocalist, and backup guitarist. We did two Canadian tours – back-and-forth, and many cities in America. In addition, Kim (Simmonds) and I did some recording in Cleveland and New York, and although those songs were never released or published (my copies are still on cassette tapes), I still remember the sessions and the fun we had and the great music we made.

Note: there were many players/members of that group over the years, many like myself not credited on Wikipedia because no one was actually working that website just before and when Kim unfortunately passed away (RIP). Just for factual clarification though, here is the newspaper announcement of my joining the group, a picture from one of our shows in Winnipeg with accompanying newspaper review, and a copy of our first Canadian tour schedule just for the record. I have quite a few photos, videos and audio tapes of Kim and I that I will be posting soon. The band Savoy Brown is a classic world-renowned blues band with a glorious history, as you can see with the concert posters shown below. I am very honoured to have been a part of the Savoy Brown family. Miss you Kim!