Well, it has been quite a few months in the Heart world. On one hand, I am glad that all these things have been happening while I’m in this class, because it has been helpful to get to write about all this. On the other hand, it’s said that my favorite band in the whole world is on hiatus. However, it seems that both sisters are pushing on with their own solo projects. As you have read in my previous posts, Ann has been on her Ann Wilson of Heart tour all across the country. The show is stellar and I left both shows that I saw in complete awe. She filmed some of the shows and just released a preview for a new DVD called “Ann Wilson: In Focus.” I will post the link to the preview. It looks incredible and I will for sure be one of the first to buy it. Her tour picks up again next week and travels the Midwest and West coasts. I think she’ll then announce a third leg and come back east again (or I can steadily hope). As for Nancy’s side project, I can’t say I am as thrilled about it. I may be biased because my love for Heart is rooted in my love and admiration of Ann Wilson, but Nancy’s new project, called Roadcase Royale, just doesn’t seem to have what Ann’s project does. Sure, there are four members of Heart in the new band, and they released a decent single called “Get Loud,” but other than a couple charity gigs, they haven’t done much. They keep saying they’ll go out on tour, but when? They recently announced a small California tour, but that doesn’t help my cause much. Ann created a show that has emotion, a beautiful set design, and song choices you could only dream about. Roadcase Royale, again, has released a couple songs, but seem like they are going to rely on the Heart catalogue a bit more. If you’re going to take a break from Heart, the last thing I want to hear is regurgitated Heart songs with a new lead singer. While Ann did perform five Heart songs in her set, they were all reimagined sounded completely different that what you would hear at a Heart show. Am I biased? Absolutely. I just wish Nancy’s project would have the same passion behind it as Ann. Since I’ve been lucky enough to meet some of her band and crew, there is a personal connection there that is unparalleled. After her Rhode Island show, Ann signed my ticket! I mean C’MON! That’s AWESOME! Oh well, I will continue to wait patiently until the day that Heart reunites. I could be waiting a while…

There have been so many members of Heart through the years, it rivals the cast of Ben-Hur. I decided to go through all of them and list out my top 5 favorite members of Heart, or anyone who has played with them for a significant amount of time. NOTE: I will not be including any current member of the band, so this excludes Craig Bartock, Dan Rothchild, Ben Smith, Chris Joyner, and of course, Ann and Nancy Wilson. This list is not who I like the least, I love every member and it is all out of adoration. Let me know what you think of this list in the comments!

5) Roger Fisher

The original guitarist of Heart and one of the founding members, Roger Fisher was a talented guitarist who contributed some of Heart’s most iconic riffs. However, drugs and alcohol hindered his ability to play, and after a strained relationship with Nancy, he was asked to leave the group in 1979.

4) Debbie Shair

The only other woman to be a member of Heart, Debbie Shair was always fun to watch on the keyboards in her tenure from 2004-2012. Her signature hairstyle and bopping rhythm were always entertaining. She added new life into songs like “Alone” and The Who’s “Love, Reign O’er Me.”

3) Sue Ennis

Now, an avid Heart fan would know that Sue Ennis has never been official member of the band. However, Ennis was in Ann and Nancy’s side group, The Lovemongers. All three women were friends growing up, and Sue Ennis helped the Wilsons write some of their most successful songs, including “Dog and Butterfly” and “Straight On.”

2) Andy Stoller

Who is Andy Stoller, you might ask? Stoller is the bass player for Ann’s side project The Ann Wilson Thing!. He is a great bassist and his timing is impeccable. I’ve personally met his a couple times and he is just as much a nice guy as he is a good musician.

1) Howard Leese

Howard Leese is one of the original members of Heart and currently holds one of the longest tenures of the group. He was with the group from 1976-1995. He is very talented on the guitar and keyboards. Leese was an integral part of their production team as well. While he has gone on to play shows with Bad Company, Paul Rodgers, and some tribute shows in Las Vegas, his talent and energy are still missed in Heart to this day.

If you asked any Heart fan other than myself what the most important album of their career was, you’d probably yield the results “Dreamboat Annie,” “Dog and Butterfly,” “Little Queen,” and “Heart.” However, I firmly believe that the most important album of their career came in 1990 with “Brigade.” Heart had built such a loyal fan base from the mid 70’s to the early 80’s. They were known for their edgy rock that touched on folk at times, and the fans ate it up. However, in 1982 and 1983, Heart released “Private Audition” and “Passionworks,” respectively. These albums had a different sound than the band normally put out, and thus they started to lose the trusty Heart Mongers that once filled up arenas and stadiums. In 1985, Heart sold themselves out to corporate rock with the glam-pop, power ballad filled “Heart.” While they still had some fans left from the first incarnation, they garnered even more fans and accolades with this new pop sounding album. Another album followed and Heart’s success became bigger and bigger. The makeup got thicker, the heels got taller, the hair got bigger, and the drug use got worse. In 1990, Ann and Nancy Wilson were done with the current version of the band, and thus stripped off some of the glam, sobered up, and produced their most important album: “Brigade.” This album still retained some of the synthesizer-driven glam rock that we had previously seen in the recent years, however they also brought back an edgy guitar and a folk touch that harkened back to their first incarnation. This album blended both periods of Heart into one jam-packed, 13 song album. Songs like “All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You,” “Stranded,” and “Secret” stayed true to their 80’s pop sound. However, songs like “Call of the Wild,” “Under the Sky,” and “The Night” all brought back the nostalgia of the 70’s folk rock sound. I think this album is so integral for Heart’s career because it took both factions of their career and made it one. After this album, Heart found a groove with albums that are much more true to themselves.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/heart-can-ann-and-nancy-wilson-go-on-after-family-assault-w473842

My heart is currently breaking for the band. Right now, the future of the band I so love is up in the air, and it may not float back down. Let me explain the situation. In August of 2016, Ann Wilson’s husband was charged with assaulting Nancy Wilson’s two teenage sons backstage at a Heart concert. The boys did something after Dean Wetter, Ann’s husband, asked them not to. Allegedly, he punched them and strangled them. This is devastating in and of itself as the victims of the crime are still children. However, what is more heartbreaking is that it has split the band up. Ann and Nancy have had relatively little communication since the ordeal, even opting to use different dressing rooms, which they have never done in their career. Both of the sisters described the remainder of last summer’s tour as “hell.” I think Nancy feels enraged that someone could abuse her sons, and rightfully so. I think she also feels that Ann is defending Wetter rather than sticking up for her family. Ann, on the other hand, while admitting that her husband never should have did what he did, thinks that the drama has gone too far and wants to work it all out in family counseling. Both sisters agree that they want the best for the future, so we will see where it leads. I am hoping that this, like a lot of the mainstream media today, is overly sensationalized. I have to think that some time off will do them both good, to heal together, and to come back together collaboratively. My prediction is as follows. I think we will see a tour in early 2018 that runs through the summer, they will go overseas to play some shows, and then they will come home and make a new album that will come out in 2019. Am I right? I sure hope so. Am I confident in my prediction? Not in the slightest.

This past Sunday, April 2, I had the immense privilege of seeing the Ann Wilson of Heart concert at the brand new Tupelo Music Hall in Derry, NH. Only one word can describe my night, and that word is incredible. As my mother and I are walking into the venue, I noticed that Ann’s bass player, Andy Stoller, was walking towards us. As I walked in the door, he followed right behind. As I looked at him, he said “Are you Trevor?” I couldn’t believe it, a member of the band recognized ME. We are friends on Facebook and we have chatted a few times, so I guess that’s how he recognized me. After chatting with Andy for a moment, I got my ticket and went over to the merchandise table, where I recognized the worker. His name was Roger, and I had met him while I was working at a music venue over the summer. He is also the merchandise manager for Rod Stewart! The show started with Ann performing a cover of The Who’s “The Real Me.” She performed a few Heart songs throughout the set, but the rest were covers of songs she loves to play, by artists such as The Who, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley, Buffalo Springfield, Jimi Hendrix, and Peter Gabriel. Wilson and her band also played a few new original songs too, which I really loved. The entire night was filled with great music and it created a lot of great memories. The best memory I got was when I went up to the stage at the end of the show and one Ann’s crew members handed me the setlist! How cool! I loved the show so much that I am going to see it again on Friday night in Rhode Island. She keeps releasing new tour dates, and I recommend any lover of good music to go see her show!

Heart is known as being one of the biggest bands to have come out of Seattle, Washington, but most people know very little about the path that brought the Wilson sisters to the state. Ann and Nancy, who are four years apart, were both born in California. Their father, John Wilson, was a Major in the Vietnam War, and because of this, the family had to move around quite a bit. They lived in California, North Carolina, and even in Taiwan! When their father retired from the military, the Wilsons settled in the Seattle area. It was here that the Wilson sisters came into their own. While their mother, Lou Wilson, always created music with them and their sister, Lynn, it was in their new home that they took to their craft. Ann came down with mono, and so to keep her from getting insanely bored, her parents bought her a guitar. Nancy fell in love with it and taught herself to play it, earning her the nickname “Whiz Fingers.” Ann was often bullied for her weight and for her stutter, but singing helped her overcome both. Ann and Nancy played their music in churches and at family parties. They were frequent concert-goers, even getting to see The Beatles and Led Zeppelin! Their family was very encouraging of them to play music. When Ann was in her early 20’s, she moved to Vancouver, B.C., and joined a band called Hocus Pocus, soon to be known as Heart. Nancy went away to school for a few years before she ultimately joined her sister.

I would like to dedicate this post to my grandfather who passed away this week. After all, he was the person that bought me my first ever Heart album. I was 13 years old when I spent a weekend (as I often did) at my grandparent’s house. We had decided to go out to lunch and go shopping at Barnes and Noble. I had just began listening to Heart on YouTube, so when we got to the music section of the store, I ran straight for the Heart section. I really wanted was looking for a Greatest Hits album of some sort, because I only knew the big hits and didn’t want all the album filler tracks. I found a CD called “The Road Home,” which is a live acoustic album that came out in 1995, my birth year! It had some of the greatest Heart songs on it, including “Crazy on You,” “Alone,” “These Dreams,” “Straight On,” and “Barracuda.” I ran over to my Grandpa with it and showed him how cool it looked. It was at that moment that he took it up to the counter and bought it for me. I was so appreciative and just super stoked that I had my first Heart album. We started listening to it on the car ride back to his house, and he started playing it over the stereo in his house. I’ll forever be appreciative to him for buying me that album. A lifelong musician, he instilled in me a passion for music. He was a super talented guitarist who once played to a crowd of about 5,000 people! See my next post, as I will post the live video version of the first Heart album I ever owned.

Since Ann Wilson is my favorite singer of all time, it is no surprise that I jumped for joy when she announced that she would be embarking on a solo tour in March and April. The tour is called “Ann Wilson of Heart” and will feature Heart songs, songs from her solo albums, and covers. The tour kicks off tonight in Seattle, and thankfully, she will be making a stop in New Hampshire on April 2! She’ll be playing the Tupelo Music Hall in Londonderry, which she sold out in no time. It’s a rather small venue, less than one thousand seats, but I believe that will make for a beautiful and intimate performance. She posted a picture to her Facebook page this week of the set list that she’ll be performing. She blurred out every song except for four: “Barracuda,” “Straight On,” “Alone,” and “I Put a Spell On You.” A lot of fans are really hoping she goes heavy on the Heart hits. I feel a bit differently about this. I’ve been fortunate enough to see Heart 8 times in concert, and I’ve gotten to hear so many amazing tunes. Now that Ann is going solo for a while, I would love to hear her perform some songs she rarely performs. For example, there is a song on her 2007 solo album called “Little Problems, Little Lies.” It’s a beautiful song about the effects of war, but she never gets to play it during a Heart concert because the fans demand to hear The Big 5 (see my previous post.) No matter what she performs, I know it is going to a special night. Ann has the ability to make the hair on your arm stand up with her powerful and soulful voice. I am so fortunate to know the owner of the Tupelo Music Hall who is getting me a post-show meet and greet with her. I can’t wait until the concert, and I will for sure be posting a review here.