“Jeff Hart has been on the Triangle scene since the late ’80s, consistently plying tuneful, often folk-inflected rock with a bit of bluster. His early band, the Hanks, backed Arrogance’s Robert Kirkland. Later, Hart played with Chris Stamey in the ’90s, and those two connections are reflective of his own musical tastes. His lithe, laid-back baritone recalls Rhett Miller, while sharing a similar appreciation of Big Star’s power-pop and bar-band swagger.” -Chris Parker, Independent Weekly
In 2013, after 23 years as Jeff Hart and the Ruins, the band renamed themselves Jefferson Hart and The Ghosts of the Old North State (after the album of the same name). Jeff has also been playing solo under the name Jefferson Hart since early in 2013. Jeff plays guitar with Symen Blumenfeld on bass, Brian Yamamoto on guitar and John Flowers on drums.
In 2014, Jeff Hart and The Ghosts of the Old North State released, Corolla Ponies In The Snow, which was the culmination of a 12 week song writing project in which Jeff wrote a song a week for 12 weeks and posted them to SoundCloud. The title track was inspired by a YouTube video of ponies running on the North Carolina Outer Banks during a snow storm.
“His prize possession is a guitar signed by over a dozen of his heroes including Paul Westerberg, John Hiatt, Robert Earl Keen, and Matthew Sweet – with a combination of that foursome providing a decent description of Hart’s sound … and from a Byrds-eye view, the pre-Clarence White Byrds.” – Rick Cornell – No Depression
“I challenge anyone to find a better in-the-wee-hours song than the exceptional ‘From Now On’ with such lines as “Colder than the backside of your pillowcase”. Lesser artists have made careers of such songs. ” – Record Exchange Monitor
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