Happy festivus!

If you know the Wild Heartwell, it’s a widely-known thing that I LOVE Seinfeld. However, there is one particular episode

Happy Festivus from the Wild Heart

that strikes my fancy: The Strike. This one is perhaps best-known as The Festivus.

With that said, I present to you the Wild Heart’s celebration of Festivus. HAPPY FESTIVUS! LET’S RUMBLE!

Airing of Grievances:

The airing of grievances gathers everyone you know and you tell them how they have wronged you in the past year.

• Heart – you come to Houston AGAIN and every time you do, you jack up your ticket prices. As a fan, I find this completely appalling. I haven’t seen your act since 2008’s Human Tour when I was in college. Between then and now, the economy went to hell and now this jobless college grad cannot afford to go to your concerts. Please lower your ticket prices!!
• Amy Grant – Your “2 Friends Tour” COMPLETELY avoided coming to Houston. I really wanted to see you live again and performing all your old hits, as well as Michael W. Smith. So I suggest that you stop snubbing Houston, and come to some place like the Berry Center, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion, or even the House of Blues. Otherwise I am done listening to your music!
• KTRU – I go in for an interview twice with you dumbass hipsters and you refuse to hire me twice! You act all anti-record industry yet what do I see when I walk into your studios but a big white banner that says “TOM WAITS FOR NO ONE!” Guess what? He was signed to Asylum and Island Records – both are major labels. He’s currently signed to Anti records, the US distributor to Kate Bush. Hate to break it to you but that’s a major label too. Yet somehow you don’t like me because I tell you the artists I am currently loving are Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks and Kate Bush. You are nothing but hypocrites. Thanks for crushing my on-air dreams.Oh and one more thing, since you are based at Rice University: GO COOGS!
• Stevie Nicks – Why did you have to snub Houston for the “Heart and Soul” tour? I wanted to see you perform that duet of Young Turks with Rod Stewart Not cool! But thanks for coming for the “In Your Dreams” tour. That was amazing!
• White Stripes, Rilo Kiley, & R.E.M – Why did you all break up? We need you to save us from the clutches of the evils of bad music such as Lady GaGa & Katy Perry!
• Ke$ha – I couldn’t help but notice that your song “C U Next Tuesday” is an acronym for “cunt.” As a college educated woman who took at least 9 hours of womens studies classes, I find this VERY offensive. Just because a guy calls you that doesn’t mean that it is okay. It’s degrading a female to a mere body part and nothing more. Take a freaking lesson from the women’s lib movement from the 70’s Ke$sha!
• The Ton Tons – How come you never got back to me about covering you guys?
• Nameless haters of that know who they are – What the hell gives you the right to take shots at the Wild Heart? BTW keep up the hatin’ because people like you only make people like me stronger! To quote Pat Benatar: “Knock me down it’s all in vain. I get right back up on my feet again! Hit me with your best shot!” It’s never cool to make fun of someone’s album collection. Vinyl is cooler, better sounding as far as decibels go, but you are a clueless jerk who only cares about making other peoples lives miserable.

And now for the toasts of 2011

• All of the local bands that I have covered this year – Nightbird – Stevie Nicks Tribute, Spare Parts, Spare Heart – Heart Tribute, August 83, Kozmic Pearl – Janis Joplin Tribute, Love It To Death – Alice Cooper Tribute, and BlackRozeHouston. I have loved every minute of covering you guys. Houston’s music scene is like a hidden gem of musical talent. All of y’all keep up the good work and I think you will go far! Special thanks to John Hill and Jennifer Nguyen for giving me this idea.
• Glee – One of the best things that you do, aside from the funny storylines with Jane Lynch and Matthew Morrison, is that you introduce classic rock numbers to a new generation. You did this well with last season’s salute to Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. No thanks to the show, a new generation got to hear snippets about the emotional drama that went on behind the scenes but also hear the songs themselves as performed by the cast. I want an encore! However can that encore be with something by Yes or Styx?
• Stevie Nicks – Your new album, In Your Dreams, is AMAZING! It reminds me of your old 80’s albums like The Wild Heart, Bella Donna, and The Other Side of the Mirror. Also, your In Your Dreams tour was pretty magical – least your concert in Houston was. (Never have I been to the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion where a concert was done in 103+ degree heat under a big full moon. Even better, your merchandise wasn’t too expensive and my mom liked the keychain I got her.
• Lindsey Buckingham – I won tickets to your concert at Cactus Records. Though I am unfamiliar with your solo work, I must say you were pretty amazing at the Verizon Wireless Theater. Also, I must give you mad props for performing my favorite Fleetwood Mac song, Tusk.
• Cactus and Black Records – Without you lovely people, I would not have been able to cover 2 major shows (Lindsey Buckingham and Lost 80’s Night at StereoLive with Animotion, When In Rome, and A Flock of Seagulls), survived a bad day at work, and helping me to climb the ladder of success with blogging.

Stevie Nicks gives an earthy kick with “In Your Dreams”

Magical. Mystical. Beautiful. Legendary. Mysterious. All of these words describe rock legend Stevie Nicks. One thing that Nicks seems to be immune to is age. She seems to live by the notion that “age isn’t anything but a number” because after all, she is in her 60’s and still looks great and sounds great for any woman in rock & roll – a rarity.

Nicks’ albums are sheer experiences – like dreams. This album is no exception. She starts out the album with the dreamlike-trance Secret Love, which is nothing short of sexy. It was a song that was written when Rumours was made back in 1976, but thankfully she kept it for herself and we have it now in this extremely beautiful version.

In Your Dreams is an almost-return to some of the songs that made Bella Donna famous – minus the duet with Tom Petty. It has a feel that is reminiscent of Stop Dragging My Heart Around. I am sure that it will please both classic and newcomers to Stevie’s music, something that she has always been good at doing.

One of the best things about this album is both the mix of rock and trance-likeness that weaves throughout the entire album. She proves this well on Wild Sargasso Sea, which tells the tale of a jilted lover and/or friends with benefits. She continues this haunting with the tribute to New Orleans song entitled New Orleans. As someone who lives in nearby Houston, TX and saw all the refugees coming from Hurricane Katrina, this is a very beautiful song about the hope and promise that New Orleans is back up and running despite the horrible events of Hurricane Katrina. Nicks exclaims “I wanna dress up/ I wanna wear beads.”

The best melodic song, though, has to be You May Be the One. Nicks’ classic backup singers, Sharon Celani and Lori Petty Nicks (her sister-in-law) join her in once again-unmatched harmony. It is nothing short of beautiful and sounds much like Nicks circa 1983 when The Wild Heart was released.

Annabel Lee sounds like an updated version mixture of The Wild Heart and Nightbird. All in all it is amazing and it is a welcome return to rock music. However, one of the biggest surprises comes on Solider’s Angel  – a surprise duet with Lindsey Buckingham, her former boyfriend and fellow member of Fleetwood Mac.

Overall the album is one of the best Stevie Nicks albums out there. It sounds much like classic Nicks with a dreamlike kick, which is what makes the album extremely beautiful. It is sure to be a bestseller and hopefully a successful tour will come out of this. This album will hit stores on May 3rd.

Spare Parts Makes Everyone Take Notice

It was one of those rare nights where sports and music peacefully coexisted at Pennison’s Sports Bar in the Copperfield district of Houston, TX with Spare Parts Saturday night.

The band opened the night with an exquisite rendition of the Pretenders 1979 classic Brass In Pocket. One of the best things about their cover is they make it their own but, at the same time, they never compromise the original Pretenders song.

However, things were kicked into high gear with a rendition of Bad Day by Fuel, which was made better by due to its lead-in of I Want You To Want Me by Cheap Trick. One person even got up and danced!

Things were put into orbit though when they started playing some of their material from Linda and her husband-guitarist Mike Lambert’s other band, Spare Heart – a tribute to Heart. The guitarist from Staci’s Edge (and guitarist for Spare Heart), Staci Butler, joined them onstage for a few songs including the explosively amazing Straight On, Even It Up, and the ever-popular Barracuda.

One of the best things about this band is the fact that they played some of their original material in addition to their covers. One of these original pieces, Ain’t No Way To Say I Love You, sounded quite a bit like a team-up of CCM artist Margaret Becker and MercyMe. However, lead vocalist Linda Lambert absolutely shines with her jazzy-style vocals.

Overall, if you ever get the chance to see this band or hear them at a local bar, this is one band that you should definitely take notice. Also check out their tribute band Spare Heart – a tribute to the band Heart, who will be performing at 9 pm Saturday, October 1, at the Concert Pub on 2470 FM 1960 W.

Video: Flaming Lips’ Stage Collapses in Oklahoma | Rolling Stone Music

Video: Flaming Lips’ Stage Collapses in Oklahoma | Rolling Stone Music.

This is the 2nd time this has happened this summer. I think it is turning out to be a bit disastrous of a summer concert season. First it was Cheap Trick, then the Kings of Leon canning their summer tour, and now the Flaming Lips. Then of course the death of Amy Winehouse.

What is becoming all of this!

The Wild Heart celebrates the original Wild Heart

Image via Wikipedia

‪Stevie Nicks – Original Stand Back US Fest 1983‬‏ – YouTube.

In celebration of the In Your Dreams tour coming to Houston, TX this Saturday at 8pm (if you haven’t gotten your tickets yet and live in Houston, go to get ’em!), I think I shall post a few things about, well, the author of the album that is the name of this blog: The Wild Heart herself. (Though I blog about other artists too!)

I will also be tweeting from the concert so if you aren’t following me, well now is a GREAT time to start following me on Twitter.

10 things you probably didn’t know about Stevie Nicks’ “Bella Donna”

On July 27, 1981 Fleetwood Mac member Stevie Nicks released her landmark solo album Bella Donna. That album with songs

30 years of entertainment and white-winged doves

like Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around, Leather and Lace – both duets with Tom Petty and Don Henley respectively, and the ever-popular Edge of Seventeen launched her enduring solo career. Though its a belated birthday, I, would like to present you with the 10 facts that you probably didn’t know about Bella Donna.

1. The most well-known single from this album is, of course, Edge of Seventeen. Nicks has said that this song is about the death of her uncle and the death of John Lennon. She explained in her Live In Concert video that “I was in Australia when John Lennon was shot. Everybody was devastated. I didn’t know John Lennon, but I knew Jimmy Iovine, who worked with John quite a bit in the ’70s, and heard all the loving stories that Jimmy told about him. When I came back to Phoenix I started to write this song. Right when I got to Phoenix, my uncle Bill got cancer, got very sick very fast, and died in a couple of weeks. My cousin John Nicks and I were in the room when he died. There was just John and I there. That was part of the song when I went running down the hallways looking for somebody – I thought where’s my mom? Where’s his wife and the rest of the family? At that point I went back to the piano and finished the song.”
2. Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around was one of the earliest videos to air on a new network that debuted on August 1, 1981 at midnight called Mtv. Mtv ended up being massively popular with teenagers and young adults and introduced both Tom Petty of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Nicks to a younger audience.
3. Producer Jimmy Iovine (who has since worked with rap artist Eminem, Dr. Dre and R&B singer Mary J. Blige among others) produced the album. Iovine and Nicks ended up moving in together during the making of the album.
4. Bella Donna is an italian expression for “beautiful woman.”
5. Some tracks did not make the final cut of Bella Donna, but were included on other albums. Some of these tracks were “I Sing For Things (which was eventually re-recorded for her 1985 album Rock A Little), Gypsy (which was included later on Fleetwood Mac’s Mirage album in 1982), Sleeping Angel (which was included on the soundtrack to the hit film Fast Times at Ridgemont High), Blue Lamp (which was included on the Heavy Metal soundtrack) and Gold and Braid, which Nicks has performed live for the Bella Donna tour.
6. The Bella Donna tour kicked off in Houston, TX at the the Summit, which was also where fellow rockers Journey recorded their 1981 Live In Houston – the Escape Tour video. Nicks herself would later return to The Summit in 1989 for her The Other Side of the Mirror tour and film the video for Whole Lotta Trouble at said concert. The Summit was the home of the Houston Rockets and later became known as the Compaq Center. It now currently houses bestselling Christian author Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church.
7. There are many tracks that still remain officially unreleased but have become popular on sites like youtube and other peer-to-peer sites. Some of these tracks include “Castaway,” “Lady From the Mountains,””China Doll”, “Christian (Spinning Wheels)”, another duet with Tom Petty, and “Stay Away.”
8. Bella Donna hit #1 on the US Billboard charts in September 1981 and was awarded platinum status 2 months later. It has since gone 4x platinum.
9. This was the 1st recording to feature Nicks’ longtime backup vocalists Sharon Celani and Lori Perry Nicks.
10. Nicks wrote Leather and Lace for a duet album for country singer Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter. However it wasn’t used by either singer so Nicks recorded it as a duet with Don Henley. The song itself hit #6 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in January 1982.

Susan Ashton debuts with “Wakened By the Wind”

Contemporary Christian musicin the late 80s-early 90’s, for the most part, was a basic copycat of its non-Christian counterparts.

Susan Ashton is one of the most underappreciated voices in Contemporary Christian Music.

Susan Ashton, like Amy Grant, is not one of those copycats. She is an original that has yet to be copied to this day! However, she has been covered by many country artists such as Kathy Mattea (who covered her song Grand Canyon on her 1994 album Walking Away A Winner), Martina McBride, and Garth Brooks – whom she used to sing backup for and even opened for him.

Her debut album, Wakened By the Wind is almost country-lite but with less twang and more lush vocals hinted with a guitar. On the albums opening track, Down On My Knees, Ashton confesses “You bear the weight of condemnation/ cleansing with the blood of truth/ so with my humble acclamation I wanna give myself to you.”  She is clearly referring to sin that leads to ultimate death but also the redemption and forgiveness that comes with being a follower of Jesus Christ. Essentially she is telling the listener that she is not perfect, but rather dirty and is made clean by the Lord.

One of the best tracks is Benediction,  which is a semi-uptempo song about searching for what God wants her to do. Ashton follows up in this vein with Land of Nod – a Bonnie Raitt-inspired song about how Christians should not be complacent in their faith, but instead be challenged in their faith.

Many of the songs on this album such as No One Knows My Heart and I Hear You are also basically prayers. Others, such as In Amazing Grace Land, are praises to Jesus for the price that he paid on the cross for the sins of the world.

This is one of the most underrated Christian albums and artists of all time. It rarely gets any current airplay on CCM radio, even in her hometown of Houston, TX – where I, the Wild Heart, grew up and currently reside. Hopefully one day she will be rediscovered.

“Ball and Chain” by Susan Ashton

Stevie Nicks gives an earthy kick with “In Your Dreams”

Magical. Mystical. Beautiful. Legendary. Mysterious. All of these words describe rock legend Stevie Nicks. One thing that Nicks seems to be immune to is age. She seems to live by the notion that “age isn’t anything but a number” because after all, she is in her 60’s and still looks great and sounds great for any woman in rock & roll – a rarity.

Nicks’ albums are sheer experiences – like dreams. This album is no exception. She starts out the album with the dreamlike-trance Secret Love, which is nothing short of sexy. It was a song that was written when Rumours was made back in 1976, but thankfully she kept it for herself and we have it now in this extremely beautiful version.

In Your Dreams is an almost-return to some of the songs that made Bella Donna famous – minus the duet with Tom Petty. It has a feel that is reminiscent of Stop Dragging My Heart Around. I am sure that it will please both classic and newcomers to Stevie’s music, something that she has always been good at doing.

One of the best things about this album is both the mix of rock and trance-likeness that weaves throughout the entire album. She proves this well on Wild Sargasso Sea, which tells the tale of a jilted lover and/or friends with benefits. She continues this haunting with the tribute to New Orleans song entitled New Orleans. As someone who lives in nearby Houston, TX and saw all the refugees coming from Hurricane Katrina, this is a very beautiful song about the hope and promise that New Orleans is back up and running despite the horrible events of Hurricane Katrina. Nicks exclaims “I wanna dress up/ I wanna wear beads.”

The best melodic song, though, has to be You May Be the One. Nicks’ classic backup singers, Sharon Celani and Lori Petty Nicks (her sister-in-law) join her in once again-unmatched harmony. It is nothing short of beautiful and sounds much like Nicks circa 1983 when The Wild Heart was released.

Annabel Lee sounds like an updated version mixture of The Wild Heart and Nightbird. All in all it is amazing and it is a welcome return to rock music. However, one of the biggest surprises comes on Solider’s Angel  – a surprise duet with Lindsey Buckingham, her former boyfriend and fellow member of Fleetwood Mac.

Overall the album is one of the best Stevie Nicks albums out there. It sounds much like classic Nicks with a dreamlike kick, which is what makes the album extremely beautiful. It is sure to be a bestseller and hopefully a successful tour will come out of this. This album will hit stores on May 3rd.