Tami Hart

During the dawn of the aughts, at the age of 19, indie-rock musician Tami Hart achieved what many spend their entire careers chasing: an effusive review from the New York Times. The outlet lauded her first album, No Light in August, for its “raw heartbreakers,” “solemnity to her preternatural wisdom,” and “fervor of the loudest punk rock.” Nearly 25 years later, in her memoir, Rebel Girl, Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hannah, one of Hart’s sheroes, praised her guitar playing for being “reminiscent of some of Nirvana’s biggest hits, but altered in a folksy way, with a big, twangy, vulnerable voice that always went up an octave at exactly the right time, floating on top.” So, where do you go after you’ve hit a creative apex as a teenager? If you’re Hart, you venture even more inward. “I was totally burnt out and quit,” she says, “because it was over 10 years of just trying to survive.” Stepping back from music — after releasing a follow-up solo album (What Passed Between Us) and touring with several bands (Making Friends, MEN) — she got married, started a family, got divorced, got married again, and simply lived the type of normal life most of us take for granted. Now, 25 years after her debut, Tami Hart returns with a massive new album recorded over six days in Asbury Park, New Jersey. The album was produced by Ted Leo and features Larz Brogan of Palehound, Marissa Paternoster of Screaming Females, and Neil Gust of Heatmiser. The record captures Hart moving beyond her longtime underdog mentality and embracing her identity as an artist. Tami Hart is both a return and a reinvention: raw, melodic, deeply personal, and full of hard-earned confidence