HEART
Biography
Press Release, May 18, 1999
Press Release, November 13,
1998
Press Release, October 2, 1998
Press Release, June 5, 1998
Press Release, May 1, 1998
Press Release, February 4, 1998
Press Release, January 28, 1998
Press Release, Feb. 1, 1996
TRAVELING THE ROAD HOME WITH HEART
Coming off 1993's DESIRE WALKS ON album, where HEART's acoustic roots proudly returned in such songs as "Back To Avalon" and "Ring Them Bells," the group felt compelled to travel THE ROAD HOME.
Lucky for us.
THE ROAD HOME (Capitol) is an acoustic live album--15 songs featured in more than 70 minutes--that marks their 20th anniversary in the rock world. Overseen by producer and arranger John Paul Jones (the former bassist for Led Zeppelin), the album allows listeners to joyfully reconnect with reinterpretations of the beloved songs of rock's most famous sisters, ANN and NANCY WILSON, and HOWARD LEESE.
The album is accompanied by a long-form in-concert home video.
For THE ROAD HOME , which was recorded at the Backstage Club in HEART's native Seattle, Jones--who's known for his string arrangements on early Led Zeppelin albums, as well as overall arrangements on recent albums by Peter Gabriel and R.E.M. plus his production of the recent Butthole Surfers album--joined the band onstage, performing on piano, bass and mandolin. In addition, Jones assembled a five-member string and oboe section of the Seattle Symphony players.
In taking THE ROAD HOME , HEART have truly enhanced their rich legacy. As ANN WILSON says of their inspiration for this project, "I think you have to look at all you've gained through huge success versus doing exactly what you want to do and shutting everything out--you're lucky if you can have the quiet time to do exactly what you want to do. I think that's what we're getting back to," ANN continues. It's the quietest it's been inside my soul in a long time.
Agrees NANCY WILSON, "It's really an album that's overdue for this band."
Transformation is the core of THE ROAD HOME . When the heavy hard rock overcoat is cast aside in these intimate acoustic settings, what shines through are the voices and the melodies filled with emotions as expressed by one of the most treasured groups in the music pantheon. Songs on THE ROAD HOME run the gamut from HEART's storied career and include selections from their quadruple platinum-selling 1976 debut album DREAMBOAT ANNIE ("Crazy On You," "Dreamboat Annie") to 1993's critically acclaimed DESIRE WALKS ON ("Back To Avalon") and beyond with the new track "Cherry Blossom Road." The album is an auditory lesson in their evolution, a magical journey where stellar songs made famous on other landmark collections such as 1977's LITTLE QUEEN ("Barracuda," "Dream of the Archer"), 1978's DOG AND BUTTERFLY ("Straight On," "Dog and Butterfly"), 1985's HEART ("These Dreams") and 1990's BRIGADE ("All I Wanna Do") breathe the fresh, sweet air of new life in their acoustic arrangements. Beyond reaching inside the HEART songbook, they stirringly interpret Joni Mitchell's early gem "River" and the Boudleaux Bryant-penned American classic popularized by Nazareth, "Love Hurts."
For THE ROAD HOME , ANN and NANCY WILSON and HEART lead guitarist HOWARD LEESE are joined by bassist Fernando Saunders and drummer Denny Fongheiser from the group's 1993 DESIRE WALKS ON tour. It took all of eight minutes to sell out the five performances that were recorded at the Backstage Club August 1994.
"When we got off the road a couple of years back, after the biggest tours and the biggest success we've ever had, we came away feeling a little bit lost in the machinery of it," explains ANN. "It was really a good time for us, but it was so huge and so '80s that we decided to scale it down and get back to the reality of being personally in touch with club audiences again, sort of like starting over. That's what we're reaching for here. HEART has been known forever as an arena band, and going back to club roots is the most real way possible to remind yourself of who you are and let people in to see the real you."
ANN and NANCY developed a taste for the intimate club setting when they formed the Lovemongers, an acoustic side project whose recording of Led Zeppelin's "Battle of Evermore" was included in the best-selling soundtrack to Singles , a hit film revolving around the Seattle rock scene written and directed by NANCY's husband, Cameron Crowe. A four-track EP on Capitol was released shortly afterward.
"It makes perfect sense that after our great big tours, we should find our deepest satisfaction in a little cellar club," states ANN, who believes that sense of euphoria is captured for all time on THE ROAD HOME . "That's just amazing to me. Most people would say, 'What are you, nuts? You can only fit 500 people in there. How much money can you make? Aren't you happier when you're up in the top five percent of the business?' And I guess the answer is we were a lot happier just doing this. It was a great experience from top to bottom, and people are still talking about it." In fact, stunning is the word Seattle Post-Intelligencer critic Gene Stout used to describe opening night of the five-night run.
"To create a special mood at the venue for the recording of the album," NANCY explains, "the Pearl Jam crew came in and brought their movable atmosphere, along with our Donny Osmond doll altar and Elvis bust, and we added a lot from home. All around the room were cardboard cutout standups of presidents and cops and even Ed McMahon. So the atmosphere was very Seattle, in a way, but kind of like a glorified bedroom--the kind of bedroom you'd like to have when you're 18. The kind of bedroom we did have at 18."
The ambiance was apropos, because the acoustic treatment of HEART classics on THE ROAD HOME , and a brand new tune, "Cherry Blossom Road," are casual and intimate. Take "Alone," for instance. The 1987 chart-topper sheds its high-gloss profile for a simpler, more emotionally intense demeanor that doesn't merely tug at the heartstrings, but yanks them. A gentle guitar introduction is followed by ANN's wistful yearnings, and as this sorrowful song of loneliness unfolds, so does the urgency in ANN's voice. "How can I get you alone?" she asks pleadingly and with compelling desperation, giving us better understanding of the song's sad lament.
"When taken down to the point it is on this record, it shines way more than it did inside that big production," says ANN of "Alone." "Before it was big and overbearing and it blew back your hair." Says NANCY, "It was the '80s power ballad with all the trimmings, housed in a big, Rubens-esque, rococo frame."
"In doing it that way, the emotion of the song was really confusing," says ANN. "It's actually a soft lament of an emotion, and there it was put inside this huge picture frame and displayed with this massive presentation. It's almost like the basic simple emotion of it went by people, although they loved it and it was a No. 1 hit. But this way it's so much cooler."
Recast versions of older songs on THE ROAD HOME --including the soulful "Crazy On You"--are just as cool. And the instrumentation and vocal arrangements on Joni Mitchell's "River"--which Nancy describes as the saddest Christmas song in the world--flows so smoothly while the folksy, swampwater "Cherry Blossom Road" leads a heart-racing path from girl talk to woman's walk. The acoustic "All I Want To Do Is Make Love To You"--a #2 smash in 1990--is nothing less than love at first listen, from its gorgeous opening piano chords to its melancholic fireplace warmth.
"Everyone wanted us to do that song in these shows and we had sworn it off because it kind of stood for everything we wanted to get away from in our last chapter," recalls ANN. "NANCY and I were against it from the get-go, but then John came up with this idea of totally having it be a soliloquy, where you strip it down to its naked essentials. That was a bare light bulb moment because it's just me and the piano, just like in an old Judy Garland special or one of those other times where you see a blues singer standing there by a piano. It turned out great, and I really think that song is transformed."
If the heart of ANN and NANCY WILSON's classic sound is found in its memorable melodies, then its soul lies buried even deeper. Look beneath the surface of each song and into the sinew, and you'll find that the true essence of HEART is revealed in ANN's gut-wrenching vocals and NANCY's angelic harmonies and lead voice, backed by the NANCY and HOWARD LEESE signature guitar work.
And nowhere is their music more vibrant than when captured live, when the distinctive combination of masterfully arranged notes and raw emotional power gives birth to spellbinding song.
It appears Thomas Wolfe was wrong. You can go home again. Just follow your HEART. It leads directly to THE ROAD HOME .