HEART – Fanatic Live From Caesars Colosseum (2014)

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Sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, better known as HEART, celebrated the release of their 14th studio album Fanatic with a very special performance at the Caesars Colosseum in Windsor, Ontario, performing the new songs and timeless hits like “Alone”, “Crazy On You” and “Barracuda” with brand new arrangements.
“Fanatic Live From Caesars Colosseum” will be released on CD + DVD and Blu-ray on Feb. 25, capturing Heart at their rockin’ best.

The success of ‘Fanatic’ emphatically confirmed the Wilson sisters’ enduring appeal on both sides of the Atlantic. They are one of those rare artists who seem to have stretched their prime years across the decades, holding on to a sizeable core fanbase while adding new ones with each new release.
As a duo with the ability to constantly reinvent (but faithful to their roots), the key to Fanatic was again to bring in producer Ben Mink, who helped the sisters bear witness to past memories and regrets, in the writing and recording process done on the road, between gigs.
The way it used to be done… a burst of inspiration, captured and committed to tape, intense, caught in the moment.

The sheer freshness and power of Fanatic, never mind Mink’s studio inventiveness, was always going to be a challenge, performed live. It would have been good if it had genuinely been a live performance of the whole album, but you gotta play the hits, right? Well yes, of course you have, and they are all here.
But it’s the album’s title track that opens the set, louder, deeper, darker, inched along by bass heavy guitars, brightened by sunbursts of chiming riffs. Then, the seamless, effortless but totally convincing jump back in time to the hard rocking “Heartless” (1976) and the yearning AOR of “What About Love” (1985) suggest the duo can walk between worlds or at least see them clearly, even now.

In a way, those three opening tracks are an introduction to the real power of live music, realism, rawness and dependence on real talent, something that is conceivably lost among the sequencers, Auto-tune and Protools’ flatpack assembly of today’s studio recordings.
As an object lesson in how to do a live album, look no further: Heart’s “Fanatic Live From Caesars Colosseum” is the perfect answer.
Easily Recommended.

01 – Fanatic
02 – Heartless
03 – What about love
04 – Mashallah!
05 – Even it up
06 – 59 crunch
07 – Straight on
08 – Dog and butterfly
09 – Walking good
10 – These dreams
11 – Alone
12 – Dear old America
13 – Crazy on you
14 – Barracuda

Ann Wilson: Vocals, Guitar, Flute
Nancy Wilson: Guitar, Vocals, Mandolin
Craig Bartock: Guitar, Vocals
Debbie Shair: Keyboards, Vocals, Percussion
Ben Smith: Drums, Percussion
Dan Rothchild: Bass

Pre-Order:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H3JHE28
.