Album Notes

"If I Were You", the debut CD by Jason Hart, is an intensely personal work recorded over the course of nearly four years. The CD features guest performances by Rufus Wainwright, Antony (Antony and the Johnsons), Ana Torroja (Mecano) and others.

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Jason Hart is a singer/songwriter and keyboard player who has performed and recorded extensively with Rufus Wainwright, Antony and the Johnsons, Keren Ann, Nacho Cano and others. He has shared the stage with many music legends, including Elton John, Lou Reed, Moby, the B52's and Kris Kristofferson. He has most recently toured as support act for the art rock legends Marillion in the US and Canada.

A New Yorker raised in East Tennessee, Jason started his musical education at age 6. As a child, he won numerous piano competitions throughout the South but became bored with the discipline of learning the 'classics' and started writing his own songs. Early compositions were influenced by an odd mixture of musical theater and 'progressive' rock artists like Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel. To this day, Jason's writing references elements of these diverse styles, as well as his favorite singer/songwriters, from Joni Mitchell and Elton John to Tori Amos and Rufus Wainwright.

After a time writing jingles and music for the theater, a job playing keyboards for a Spanish pop star and writing top-40 hits in Spain (as well a stint teaching English to actress Penelope Cruz), and a period developing a short-lived group called "Dramapop", Jason decided to throw caution to the wind and move forward as a solo artist.

Several years of intense labor and thought have culminated in the birth of the full-length CD entitled "If I Were You": twelve dynamic original compositions that bravely convey a lifetime of experience and emotion. Jason's heartfelt vocals and extraordinary keyboard work are supported by strings, drums, bass, guitar, sax, harmonica and flute...as well as several special guest vocalists...musical tapestries which touch the heart and stir the soul.

Songs like the title track "If I Were You" put a new spin on the subject of obsession; "I Won't Blame Myself" is an anthem for victims of childhood sexual abuse; "Beautiful Nightmare" is a funky ode to ambivalence; "Marco Polo" is a story about the search for connection in the big city; "Don't Fall" and "Sometimes the Heart" are 'twisted lullabies' about family dynamics...every song is a small universe unto itself.