The world has long known Heart's Ann Wilson as one of the greatest and most enduring vocalists of her generation. Yet on her ultimately hopeful and glorious solo debut for Zoë/ Rounder Records, Wilson is likely to stun even her lifelong fans with what could fairly be called the mother of all cover albums.On Hope & Glory, Wilson manages to reinterpret and reinvent some of the greatest songs of the past forty years that powerfully and poignantly reflect the here and now, including classics from the Sixties (Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall," Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising," The Animals' "We've Gotta Get Out Of This Place," and The Youngbloods' "Get Together"), and Seventies (Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song," John Lennon's "Isolation," and Elton John's "Where To Now, St. Peter") to gems of a more recent vintage like "War Of Man" by Neil Young and "Jackson" by Lucinda Williams. Hope & Glory concludes with one heartbreakingly moving new song written by Ann herself, "Little Problems, Little Lies," yet one listen to the album demonstrates that Wilson has made each of the songs here very much her own and utterly relevant to our world today.
"Just about every single song was a complete thrill for me to sing because at some point I was a kid out there loving them, or a young adult loving them, or in a few cases a grown-up loving them," Wilson explains. As for the powerful ways the songs on Hope & Glory resonate with current events, Wilson says, "The thing is, I've been itching to make some sort of comment about our times, but I didn't want to do it in a way that was really abrasive and just shouting for the sake of shouting. I wanted to bring people some of the most beautiful poetry from different eras when they were facing a similar predicament and apply it to now."
The thematic way that Hope & Glory addresses matters of war and peaces gives the album a coherence and passion missing from the vast majority of cover albums. "Most people don't really succeed with cover albums because they just try and redo the songs," says Wilson. "I was so lucky to work with Ben Mink because he would never just do that or settle for that."
Hope & Glory - recorded in Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver, New York, Nashville and Las Vegas - also features impressive guest turns from an eclectic group of high profile artists, including Elton John, Gretchen Wilson, k.d. lang, label mate Alison Krauss, Wynonna, Shawn Colvin, Deana Carter, and Rufus Wainwright. In addition to those special guests, Ann's sister and longtime musical partner in Heart, Nancy Wilson, makes a number of appearances on assorted tracks, as do two current members of Heart, drummer Ben Smith and bassist Ric Markmann and a number of players who had worked with Ben Mink on many of his projects.
Hope & Glory - Track Listing:
1. "Goodbye Blue Sky" with Nancy Wilson (Written by Roger Waters - Popular version by Pink Floyd)
2. "Where to now St. Peter" with Elton John (John/Taupin - Elton John)[3]
3. "Jackson" with k.d. lang (Leiber/Wheeler - Lucinda Williams)
4. "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" with Wynonna Judd (Mann/Weil - The Animals)
5. "Immigrant Song" (Page/Plant - Led Zeppelin))[3]
6. "Darkness, Darkness" with Nancy Wilson (Jesse Colin Young - The Youngbloods)
7. "Bad Moon Rising" with Gretchen Wilson (Fogerty - Creedence Clearwater Revival)
8. "War of Man" with Alison Krauss (Neil Young)
9. "Get Together" with Nancy Wilson, Deana Carter & Wynonna Judd (Powers - The Youngbloods)
10. "Isolation" (Lennon)
11. "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" with Rufus Wainwright & Shawn Colvin (Dylan)
12. "Little Problems, Little Lies" (Ann Wilson)
Purchase Ann Wilson's fab solo CD, Hope and Glory, and support The Sound Cellar.
