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Thirty-two years after Heart's debut album Dreamboat Annie
was released it is still inarguable that there is any other team in
the world like Heart's Ann and Nancy Wilson. The sisters
actually joined Heart in the early '70s when they moved to Vancouver,
British Columbia. The band was already in progress before then, crewed
by founding member Steve Fosser and brothers Roger and
Mike Fisher. Though Heart's players have changed since the
release of Dreamboat Annie in 1975 and Ann and Nancy Wilson
relocated to Seattle, Washington, the two never called it quits. They
continued to move with the times and are now going into their fourth
decade as Heart. Their latest album Dreamboat Annie Live is
a live album that renews Heart's earlier works while showing significance
to present day conditions. Many of the songs from Dreamboat Annie
Live, like "Mistral Wind," originally from Heart's album
Dog & Butterfly, and their remake of Pink Floyd's
"Goodbye Blue Sky" have anti-war themes which were originally
inspired by the Vietnam War. These songs have a renewed significance
in present day when applied to the Iraqi War.
Dreamboat Annie Live was taped at the Orpheum Theatre in Los
Angeles, California in April, 2007. Accompanied by the Stockholm
Strings on many of the songs, Heart's hard rock edges are blanketed
in chamber-pop elegance and dreamy atmospherics. Heart made emo-rock
before it became a defining genre with Ann's vocal curlicues, emotive
hooks, and lengthy holds accentuating the emotions in the lyrics portrayed
in hits like "Magic Man" and "Crazy On You." The
recording has three variations of the title track "Dreamboat
Annie" which includes the original one garnished in country-tinged
accents, a Fantasy Child model with ambient-pop trinkets, and the
final one, the Reprise of "Dreamboat Annie" giving it a
soft rock flambeau with pacifying rolls in the keys and a strikingly
beautiful flute interlude on the outro performed by Ann Wilson. The
soft, flowy sway of the looped rhythms gives the melody a fairytale
ambience as Ann's vocal inflections accentuate the fantasy-like aura.
There is a recurring steely, sitar-esque tingle running through the
guitar vibrations in tracks like "Magic Man," "Crazy
On You," "Soul Of The Sea," and "(Love Me Like
Music) I'll Be Your Song" which give the melodies a succor esthetics.
"I'll Be Your Song" also has an inviting gospel-rousing
clapping circled by exquisite string patterns. The low, heavy tones
of "White Lightning & Wine" and "Sing Child"
resonate with a gothic echo. The gently fluttering notes of the flute
are revisited on "Sing Child" in the bridge as Nancy Wilson
plays a folksy harmonica verse on the outro. The soft-pop psychedelics
on "How Deep It Goes" project dreamy mists and sweetly-felted
atmospherics while the lyrical guitar phrases on "Goodbye Blue
Sky" are creased by gorgeous escalating strings. "Mistral
Wind" is the lengthiest track, robed in storytelling flute segments
trestled by rows of angelic strings and gently ringing cymbals jutting
from the whispery ballad. Then, the tempo shifts, moving faster with
drumbeats hardening and vocals digging deeper. Heart's remake of Led
Zeppelin's "Misty Mountain Hop" and The Who's
"Love, Reign O'er Me" are worthy of standing ovations. And
when Ann belts out, "Hey, hey baby, said the way you move, gonna
make you sweat, gonna make you groove," in Heart's rendition
of Zepp's "Black Dog," it is such a treat. Her pitch takes
a husky tone when she calls out, "Ah, ah Child, the way you shake
that thing, gonna make you burn, gonna make you sting/ Hey, hey baby,
when you walk that way, watch your honey drip, can't keep away."
It's so cool to hear a woman express lust towards a guy, it balances
the scales.
Dreamboat Annie Live is a real treat for fans of Heart and
for anyone who wants to hear what makes Heart so special and makes
them an irreplaceable gem in the rock world. Heart's live band on
the recording is comprised of Ben Smith (drum, percussion,
tympani), Craig Bartock (guitars, banjo, backing vocals), Rick
Markmann (bass, Didgeridoo), Debbie Shair (keyboards, percussion,
backing vocals), and Jeffrey Foskett and Libby Torrance
(backing vocals). The Stockholm Strings include Malin-My Nilsson
and Andreas Forsman on violin, Erik Holm and Nora
Roll on viola, Anna Landberg Dager and Lena Bergstrom
on cello, and additional guest Darien Sahanajar arranged the
vocal and strings as well as contributing backing vocals and percussion
parts. Produced by Nancy Wilson and Craig Bartock, Dreamboat Annie
Live is as good as the original and then some.
-Susan Frances
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