RIDGEFIELD — To refer to singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Beth Hart’s fan base as rabidly enthusiastic would really be putting it mildly.

Based on her global following on Facebook, every time she puts a show on sale, there is an instantaneous scramble for tickets. And it appears many of those fans think nothing of dropping everything and making travel plans in order to see the sultry performer, even if it means criss crossing Europe or making the trek to a show or string of shows in the US from Europe.

Those lucky enough to grab the limited number of tickets available last fall for her show at Ridgefield Playhouse were undoubtedly crushed when health issues forced a postponement of that and numerous other stops.

But the long wait is over. The Grammy-nominated powerhouse will arrive for her raw and unplugged rescheduled set at the Playhouse on May 1.

And it will be something very special, no matter how deep or limited one’s depth of affinity is for Hart, because this rescheduled spring tour will be the artist’s first solo run in the US. But this exploding global popularity was hard-earned, according to her bio.

Strolling through downtown Los Angeles in the early-1990s, you’d have found Hart strumming guitar on 3rd Street Promenade, waiting for the big break that came when she was discovered by the man who became her manager, David Wolf, and eased into a record deal with Atlantic that gave us 1996’s Immortal and 1999’s Screamin’ For My Supper.

Coping With Disorder

That was a bittersweet period for Hart, whose bipolar disorder and troubled personal life stopped her reaching the heights her music deserved.

To the delight of longstanding fans, however, she doesn’t flinch from revisiting it on her latest, Live At the Royal Albert Hall, where she confesses that during the depths of her vicious mood swings and protracted depression, “I could never sleep. I could go three or four days and stay awake, and it was just mania.”

The new millennium brought fresh hope, and the musical highs returned with revered albums like 2003’s Leave The Light On and 2007’s 37 Days. Her popular single “For My Friend,” was a highlight of 2011’s Don’t Explain, Hart’s first double-header release with guitarist extraordinaire Joe Bonamassa and an album that alerted a wider audience to her jaw-dropping talents while forging her reputation as a go-to muse for A-list guitarists, including Slash and Jeff Beck.

Hart called in to The Newtown Bee for a chat prior to her postponed show last fall, and hot on the heels of another just released live project, Front and Center — Live From New York. Hart was candid about how she dislikes listening to or viewing videos that are being readied for upcoming release, although she somewhat painfully said she was forced to screen and select the numbers that were eventually released on the Royal Albert Hall project.

“I guess I don’t know if it’s just such a high degree of narcissism, or insecurity, or both,” she confided, “but I just never feel like I live up to that bar I set for myself based on what I see my heroes producing. I just don’t like to look at it. The only thing I do get really involved with is listening when I’m going into the mixing process of making a record.

“After that, I never even listen to that record again, unless I need to refresh my memory about a song I want to do on tour that I can’t remember,” she added.

'Blessed And Fortunate'

Mentioning that her song “Leave the Light On” elicits both feelings of desperation and hope, Hart affirmed that she often experiences both ends of her emotional spectrum when she sits down to write.

“I feel exactly the same way you do every time I perform it,” she said. “It’s one of the rare, rare, rare songs in my catalog that I don’t get sick of performing. Because every time I do it, I’m reminded of how blessed and fortunate I am to have survived that crap. And I’m not just talking about drugs and alcohol — it’s surviving the shame. I had so much shame wrapped around my addictions, and most of all, I felt like I really let God down.

“God has been so good to me my whole life, but I felt that all I could see for so long was what I didn’t get and what was wrong with me and my life.

“So when I do that song and I go through the list of those shames on the verses. But then I get to the chorus where I want to learn how to love and earn how to live,” she said. “John, I’ll be honest. I was at a point where I really just wanted to die — I didn’t deserve to live because life was so ugly and dark.

“So to me, the beautiful part of that song is that you can be in such a dark place, but that little piece of God is there with you, and you can reach out to that little shaft of light in the garden. We know in life, things can be [expletive] horrible, but if you hang in there, it can turn really amazing. So that’s why that one is one of my favorite songs.”

Despite her escalating global success, Hart said she still considers herself a “below the radar artist,” but in a good way.

“Most of the time, especially now that I’m on the other side of recovery, I think how fortunate I was to be below the radar, because I feel that’s what helped me survive, to not die,” Hart said. “I really think that if I had become more famous, with paparazzi saying mean things to me on the street so I’d turn and give them an angle for a photograph, or have a bodyguard — I don’t think I would have survived that. I’m just too sensitive.”

A Working Songwriter

In fact, Hart said that she counts her ability to create music and her bipolar condition among her greatest blessings.

“I really do believe getting bipolar is a blessing, I don’t look at it like it’s a curse at all,” she said. “And I have the blessing of being able to live an anonymous life — a real life. I think fame is like a disease in that respect because you’re constantly under a microscope, and I find it’s dumbfounding how people like Madonna and Lady Gaga do it.”

When reminding Hart how Blues Magazine labeled her “the ultimate female rock star,” her reaction was not surprising.

“First of all, I could never consider myself a rock star, that’s ridiculous,” she said. “I think when people write things like that, right away I think it’s about selling stuff. This week they’ll call me that, and next week they’ll come up with something similar to call somebody else. That’s how the music business does its promotion.

“I really look at myself as a working songwriter and singer who is trying to get through life without crapping all over everything and hopefully writing some things that will help me heal,” Hart said.

“If it helps me heal, maybe somehow it will help someone else heal. And I’ll tell you, I used to really love music, but it’s not on the top of my list anymore. I love my husband, I love my family, I love laughing and sharing a good meal with my friends. Those are the things that make life so sweet and beautiful and blessed.

“Plus, feeling like you have to live up to others’ expectations all the time is the death of creativity.”

For any remaining tickets to the May 1 Beth Hart show ($65) call 203-438-5795 or visit [naviga:u]ridgefieldplayhouse.org[/naviga:u].