Ryan Hartt & The Blue Hearts - Call My Name (2012)

"You got to live it to give it", states the first line from Ryan Hartt & the Blue Hearts' latest CD, "Call My Name." In their 12 years together, Ryan Hartt & the Blue Hearts have, indeed, lived it. They've logged countless gigs and countless miles in a Honda minivan, playing clubs and festivals throughout the Northeast and beyond. Being in a blues band in today’s music market is never easy. Nonetheless, the band keeps moving forward, outlasting musical trends and clubs that have come and gone.

Though the band will always be rooted in the Chicago and West Coast blues they have built their reputation on, "Call My Name" expands their sound with soul, proto-rock & roll and even ska. Their songwriting has matured equally. Certainly the common blues themes of love lost and found are here, but the songs on "Call My Name" also reflect the changes and growth of the band members over the last six years with topics ranging from depression to choosing music over a relationship to the grind of a gigging blues band. Yet no matter what, as the last line of the of the last song says, Ryan Hartt & the Blue Hearts "will be back next Friday night".