Ben Hackett pours out his broken heart
Share with others:
"It's broken, stays broken forever/I'm keeping my heart intact," Ben Hackett sings in a tearful moan over a piano dirge on his second album, "The Blue Hour."
This is indeed an album for the brokenhearted.
For the better part of 10 tracks, the Pittsburgh-based songwriter sounds like he had to fight back waves of grief and depression to make it to the piano to release these emotionally naked songs. At times, a cello heightens the sense of melancholy, or tries to pull him out.
"I write my music purely for myself," he says. "I write what I feel. It is very therapeutic to be able to encapsulate these encounters, these people, permanently in my songs."
The deep sense of loss that pervades the album came from a family rather than romantic relationship.
With: Chelsea Jones.
Where: Club Cafe, South Side.
When: 7 p.m. Friday.
Tickets: $12. ww.clubcafelive.com.
"The death of my grandmother, who was also my best friend, triggered the writing of 'The Blue Hour,' " he says. "She came to all of my shows until she fell ill and even then she was always the last person I would talk to before going on stage. After she passed, I spent a lot of time in the studio. This record comes from that lonely, dark place. It's like laying on the floor, unable to move, arm outstretched, longing for a hand, any hand, to pull me up."
In a few places, like on the song "21," Mr. Hackett flashes a different side, bursting out with a sudden barrage of glam guitar-rock a la Queen or Bowie.
He will be equipped for both moods when he plays the CD release show at Club Cafe Friday, joined by guitarist Chris Parker, cellist Nicole Meyers, bassist Tom Bellin and drummer David Throckmorton.
"I write all of my music on the piano and then I add other instruments as needed," he says. "Some of my songs are solo piano. I don't use a band for every song or at every show. A lot of my past material is more rock and incorporates a band more. At the record release show, the band and I will play some old favorites and some new material."
Mr. Hackett expects the release show to be particularly emotional. "This will be the first show that I will not be able to talk to her," he says of his grandmother.
With: Chelsea Jones.
Where: Club Cafe, South Side.
When: 7 p.m. Friday.
Tickets: $12. ww.clubcafelive.com.
First Published February 2, 2012 12:00 am
