Emerson Hart
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Emerson Hart (born July 21, 1969) is a
songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...
,
vocalist Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...
,
guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...
and producer. He is the lead singer and songwriter of the
alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...
band Tonic.


Biography

Hart was born in
Washington, Pennsylvania Washington, also known as Little Washington to distinguish it from the District of Columbia, is a city in Washington County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. The population was 13,176 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 censu ...
. He grew up in
Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey Atlantic Highlands is a borough in Monmouth County in the U.S. state of New Jersey, in the Bayshore Region. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 4,414, an increase of 29 (+0.7%) from the 2010 census count of 4,38 ...
and attended
Red Bank Catholic High School Red Bank Catholic High School is a four-year private coeducational Roman Catholic high school, located in Red Bank in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades, operating under the super ...
. Hart's father Jennings sang for the
USO The United Service Organizations Inc. (USO) is an American nonprofit-charitable corporation that provides live entertainment, such as comedians, actors and musicians, social facilities, and other programs to members of the United States Armed F ...
and his mother Sandra is a former television hostess. His father was diagnosed with
paranoid schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, hearing voices), delusions, disorganized thinking and behavior, and flat or inappropriate affect. Symptoms develop gradually and typically begin ...
and was prescribed medicine to regulate his mental disorder, but he often resisted treatment, and he and Sandra divorced in 1977. Jennings may have been off his medication at the time of his disappearance on January 21, 1980. The elder Hart has not been seen since, and in an interview Emerson addresses his father and his belief that his father was murdered, which is the subject of the title track written and recorded by Emerson on 2007's ''Cigarettes and Gasoline''. Hart has been married twice. He was first married to Nicole Taylor Hart in 2000. They had a child, daughter Lucienne Elizabeth, in 2007, but divorced in 2008. After the divorce, Hart began dating Heather McMurray, whom he married in 2012.


Music career

Tonic's first release, '' Lemon Parade'', was a multi-platinum success, featuring the hit songs, "Open Up Your Eyes" and " If You Could Only See" (the former written by Hart and co-writer
Jeff Russo Jeff Russo (born August 31) is an American composer, songwriter, guitarist, vocalist and music producer, and one of the two founding members of the rock band Tonic. He is also a founding member of the Americana band Low Stars. Russo is also k ...
and the latter written by Hart), the latter of which was one of the most played rock tracks of 1997. In 1999, Tonic returned with their second album and the mainstream rock hit, " You Wanted More". In 2002, Tonic released their third LP, ''
Head on Straight ''Head on Straight'' is Tonic's third album, released in 2002. It was nominated for Best Rock Album at the 45th Grammy Awards and the track "Take Me As I Am" was nominated for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The album had ...
''. In 2003, Tonic received two
Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...
nominations - one for best Rock Performance by Duo or Group with Vocal for "Take Me As I Am", and the second for Best Rock Album. Hart also co-wrote the 2005
Ingram Hill Ingram Hill is an American rock band from Memphis, Tennessee. As of , they have released five studio albums and two EPs. History Ingram Hill was formed in 2000 by Justin Moore (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Phil Bogard (lead guitar), Shea Sow ...
hit, "Almost Perfect", which reached the top 25 on the
Hot AC Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, ...
chart. Hart co-wrote the
theme song Theme music is a musical composition which is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...
, "Generation", for the
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
drama ''
American Dreams ''American Dreams'' is an American drama television series that ran on NBC for three seasons and 61 episodes, from September 29, 2002, to March 30, 2005. The show tells the story of the Pryor family of Philadelphia during the mid-1960s, with m ...
'', which premiered in 2002. He earned an
ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...
award for "Best Theme Song of Television" in 2003. In February 2007, Hart signed a solo record deal with
EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...
/
Manhattan Records Manhattan Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group and operates as a branch of Interscope Capitol Labels Group. Company history Manhattan Records was formed in 1984 by Bruce Lundvall and was later renamed EMI Manhatt ...
to release his debut solo effort ''Cigarettes and Gasoline''. It was released on July 17, 2007. Hart's first single, "If You're Gonna Leave", received airplay on American radio stations beginning in June 2007, while his second single, "I Wish the Best for You", received airplay beginning in December 2007. Hart's second solo album, ''Beauty in Disrepair'', (BMG) was released on April 15, 2014. The first single, titled "The Best That I Can Give", premiered on the ''
USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...
'' website on January 7, 2014. Whereas his 2007 release dealt more with rocky relationships and personal struggles, ''Beauty'' takes on a more optimistic tone, with a theme of picking up the pieces and moving on. Regarding the single "The Best That I Can Give", Hart stated: "My wife and I dated for about four years. That's a rocky road, because you have to address all the luggage that comes with the past relationships. That was the song I wrote when I almost blew it — but I didn't." Hart's third studio album, ''32 Thousand Days'', was released on December 13, 2019. He released the first single from the album, "Lucky One", on November 13, 2019.


Discography


Solo albums


References


External links

*
Emerson Hart on MySpace
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hart, Emerson 1969 births Living people People from Washington, Pennsylvania American male singers American rock singers American alternative rock musicians Songwriters from Pennsylvania People from Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey Red Bank Catholic High School alumni Singers from Pennsylvania Songwriters from New Jersey Tonic (band) members