By Kent Brown
L.A. Bureau Chief
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Beth Hart
(credit: Adam Markle)
Monica Keena, Ed Furlong, Dave Wolff,
Susanna Lo and Ron Jeremy
(credit: Adam Markle)
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A great soundtrack does not a movie make. A great soundtrack, however, can serve as the irresistible frosting on a delectable cake. Susanna Lo’s Manson Girls movie soundtrack is turning out to be just that. With the addition of singer-songwriter Beth Hart, Lo’s soundtrack could well take on a separate life of its own while undoubtedly enhancing a film set in the late 1960s; a time often referred to as the renaissance of rock n’ roll.
I was fortunate to attend an extraordinary Beth Hart concert last month at the Echoplex in Los Angeles that served as a warm-up for Hart’s European tour to promote her new album, Don’t Explain - Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa, and to perform at a benefit concert in Monaco for Prince Albert II. At the show, Hart made the formal announcement that she was joining the Manson Girls team.
The scene was nothing short of electric. I had never seen Beth Hart perform live before and I am very glad I did. My initial reaction to her unique sound was that she is a throwback - an authentic throwback to the late 1960s. I was enthralled as this barefoot siren moved with sheer rock n’ roll grace. Grasping the life out of the microphone, Hart was mesmerizing as she belted out her songs from her knees or while effortlessly playing the keyboard, transporting the room to an earlier era.
With Beth Hart joining Guy Allison and John McFee of the Doobie Brothers, the soundtrack is turning out to have an impressive lineup of musicians that also includes some of the lead actors in Manson Girls. Film stars Taryn Manning, Estella Warren and Bill Moseley are in the process of recording several of the more recognizable anthems of the late 1960s like “California Dreamin’” and “Long Train Running.” Hart has already recorded her unique version of Grace Slick’s “White Rabbit” and will be contributing two of her original songs to the track.
After the concert, Susanna Lo, the screenwriter and director of Manson Girls, explained to a gathered crowd that her vision was to create a soundtrack that seeks to revisit a time, possibly like no other, when the music of the day truly encapsulated a major social and political movement - a time when artists like Janis Joplin, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Jefferson Airplane became the standard bearers for millions of discontented young Americans during the days of Vietnam, Woodstock and the Manson family.
Ron Jeremy and Guy Allison
(credit: Adam Markle)
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We have not had movie soundtracks the likes of Saturday Night Fever, The Graduate or American Graffiti in recent years. With the addition of Beth Hart, Susanna Lo’s Manson Girls soundtrack is clearly vying to join that exclusive list.
Links:
Manson Girls
Manson Girls on IMDB
Beth Hart
Adam Markle Photography
