Biography
Up-and-coming songwriter, bandleader, and vocalist Nicole Hart stands among the rising female forces reshaping the blues scene. Comparable to the jazz world’s young lions reviving classic forms for fresh listeners, she integrates gospel, funk, and roots rock into her performances without restraint. Raised in Atlanta, Hart grew up in an artistic home with an opera-singer father and a painter mother. Her singing began in the church youth choir during second grade and continued through high school and college in secular settings. During her university years she acquired proper vocal technique that later sustained her through repeated one-nighter bookings in Florida and Georgia.
Before entering the studio, Hart answered a Village Voice advertisement for a backup singer and was selected by Shirley Alston to join the Shirelles; her lack of Black heritage proved irrelevant, and she spent a full year on the road with the group. She releases material on Blues Leaf Records, the New Jersey Shore-based blues imprint. Her debut album, Treasure, appeared in April 2009 and included Wanda Jackson’s “Heart Trouble.” The record received strong airplay on college and public stations throughout the United States and Canada, leading Hart and her band to tour the markets where the songs were heard. Only months after its release she lost her husband, keyboardist Lance Ong, to cancer.
Before signing with Blues Leaf, Hart lived in northern New Jersey and made regular tours through the South. In addition to the Shirelles she has shared bills with Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, and Michael Bolton. Her influences include Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Chaka Khan, Bonnie Raitt, and Linda Ronstadt, as well as James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, and Donny Hathaway.
Besides Treasure she issued the self-released 2006 album The NRG Band, Live! recorded with Ong, supplied backing vocals for Gina Sicilia’s 2007 SwingNation release Allow Me to Confess, and appears on several recordings by labelmate Albert Castiglia, the Florida guitarist and singer. As of late 2010 she was preparing a follow-up album for Blues Leaf scheduled for release within the next year or two.
Before entering the studio, Hart answered a Village Voice advertisement for a backup singer and was selected by Shirley Alston to join the Shirelles; her lack of Black heritage proved irrelevant, and she spent a full year on the road with the group. She releases material on Blues Leaf Records, the New Jersey Shore-based blues imprint. Her debut album, Treasure, appeared in April 2009 and included Wanda Jackson’s “Heart Trouble.” The record received strong airplay on college and public stations throughout the United States and Canada, leading Hart and her band to tour the markets where the songs were heard. Only months after its release she lost her husband, keyboardist Lance Ong, to cancer.
Before signing with Blues Leaf, Hart lived in northern New Jersey and made regular tours through the South. In addition to the Shirelles she has shared bills with Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, and Michael Bolton. Her influences include Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Chaka Khan, Bonnie Raitt, and Linda Ronstadt, as well as James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, and Donny Hathaway.
Besides Treasure she issued the self-released 2006 album The NRG Band, Live! recorded with Ong, supplied backing vocals for Gina Sicilia’s 2007 SwingNation release Allow Me to Confess, and appears on several recordings by labelmate Albert Castiglia, the Florida guitarist and singer. As of late 2010 she was preparing a follow-up album for Blues Leaf scheduled for release within the next year or two.
Albums
