Tiny C. Hart hangs up guitar
Tiny C. Hart hangs up guitar
By SCOTT SWANSON Journal Staff Writer
Then he found the Upper Peninsula, and he never left.
Hart and his band, The Hart Beats, played their final gig together Saturday night at the 19th annual Chocolay Summerfest. Hart is retiring after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.
“It’s going to be tough for a while,” Hart said of his retirement. “But maybe next fall, after I find out about this cancer, I’ll be able to get some jobs that are non-smoking (gigs).”
The 73-year-old Hart, an Algoma, Wis., native whose real name is Norbert Cochart, has been playing country music for 44 years. He moved to Nashville in the 60s, where he recorded songs on his own record label and opened shows for Johnny Cash, Dottie West and Ernest Tubb, among others.
One day, he was booked for a weeklong gig at the Casino Bar in Ishpeming.
“I never went back (to Nashville), and I’ve been here ever since,” he said. “I found nice people around here, and I got a good following for the last 35 years that have followed me all over.”
Hart, instantly recognizable with his long, lean frame and ever-present cowboy hat, named “Keys in the Mailbox” and “The Tree in the Hole and the Hole in the Ground” as songs he especially enjoyed playing that would get the crowds up and dancing.
As for favorite places to play, he cited the Tailwinds Grill and Bar at K.I. Sawyer.
“That’s a beautiful place, and there’s no hollering or screaming,” he said. “They listen to the music.”
Picking a favorite gig wasn’t so easy, though.
“Every time I played, I enjoyed it,” he said.
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