Heart

Sibling rivalry is well known but sometimes it can have positive results. When Ann Wilson started playing guitar her sister Nancy vowed to play it better. Eventually, Ann lost interest but Nancy kept practicing and it paid off, big time.

The Seattle based Heart started out as the Army with Ann Wilson (vocals) Howard Lesse (guitar/keyboards), Steve Fossen (bass), Michael Derosier (drums) and Roger Fisher (guitar). They did standard Hard Rock material but showed a decided preference for Led Zeppelin. 

The Zeppelin fixation was event when Heart released a live 1976 recording of Led Zep’s “Stairway To Heaven” on a 2004 remastered edition of their third album “Little Queen.” Eight years later, they performed the song at the Kennedy Center during a ceremony honoring Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Jone Paul Jones and John Bonham).

Often blending acoustic and electric instruments in Zeppelin fashion and playing Hard Rock, the future Heart played all over the Northwest under a number of names, including Army and White Heart. \

After a shot at college, Nancy joined the group. Throughout the band’s existence, Heart’s two main constants were Ann (vocals) and Nancy (guitar/vocals).

Heart then re-located to Vancouver, Canada. There were a couple reasons for this. At the time the Vancouver music scene was much more vibrant. Secondly, safely in Canada the male members of the band didn’t have to worry about the Vietnam War era military draft. 

The band had two major iterations. The first, and probably most memorable was from 1975 – to 1980 and includes five albums from “Dreamboat Annie” (’75) to “Bebe La Strange” (1980) – the first album without founding guitarist Roger Fisher. The songs “Crazy On You,” “Barracuda.” “Magic Man” and “Kick It Out” are indicative of this period.

The second iteration featured the Wilson sisters with a new line-up that produced three major albums from 1985 to 1990 beginning with “Heart” (1985) to “Brigade: (1990). During this period, heart’s best-known songs, “These Dreams,” “Alone,” “What About Love” and “Who Will You Run To,” were not composed by band members. In the ’70s the band wrote nearly all their material.

In between these two iterations Heart moved from Hard Rock to a more mainstream sound that relied heavily on ballads. After “Brigade” Heart continued to release albums but they didn’t have the same impact. Also, Ann and Nancy launched The Lovemongers as a side project.

Another new Heart line-up continued to tour over the years including ’24’s Royal Flush trek. Unfortunately, the band was forced to postpone the remaining dates of tour so Ann Wilson’ could receive cancer treatments.

“The operation was successful & I’m feeling great but my doctors are now advising me to undergo a course of preventative chemotherapy & I’ve decided to do it,” Wilson reported.  After recuperating, Ann and the band returned to the road.

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