The interpretive genius of Ann Wilson was writ large during her billowing Kennedy Center rendition of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” this moment so transcendent that it moved Robert Plant to tears.
A new band and EP, the Ann Wilson Thing’s #1, traces more deeply into their influence, deeper even than more straight-forward tributes away from Heart that include the Lovemongers’ “Battle of Evermore” and her solo debut’s take on “Immigrant Song.” No, with #1, Ann Wilson follows Led Zeppelin’s original path all the way back to the blues — a primordial gut-check.
Along the way, she builds something revelatory into her legacy, something which shows us more than a cover song ever could.
The Ann Wilson Thing, in fact, would seem to have little (at least at first) to do with her Rock and Roll Hall of Fame work alongside sister Nancy Wilson in Heart. But when she excavates three covers initially associated with Buffalo Springfield, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin — they’re coupled here with a searing original called “Fool No More” that lays bear the cost of addiction — it becomes clear how much the blues always worked just beneath the surface of her craft.
It is in these rootsy moments, as with Ann Wilson’s musical heroes, when you get closest to the bone. Along the way, the honey-sweet innocence of “Dog and Butterfly” or “Dreamboat Annie” seems to take on more complexity — the jagged sexuality of “Crazy on You” or “Even It Up” and the barking toughness of “Fanatic” or “Barracuda,” too. This EP’s raw honesty, something unvarnished and true, tends to illuminate everything that came before.
At the same time, it encourages her to explore new places, even within tried-and-true material. You hear it in the way Ann Wilson pulls a tinge of regret from “For What It’s Worth,” which welds a Rolling Stones groove onto a protest song from a time that feels so very, very long ago. In the way “Danger Zone,” through her anguished cry, comes into a very modern focus. In the way she inhabits “Ain’t No Way” as only someone who has a few of life’s scars really can.
That said, it’s difficult to know how long this particular solo incarnation will last, with so much history at play as a member of Heart. But the Ann Wilson Thing’s #1, far more than 2007’s guest-packed Hope and Glory, represents the rare solo thing that feels nothing like a vanity project.
No, this particular thing clearly underscores an important part of who Wilson was all along.
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