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Nancy Wilson
LIVE AT MCCABE'S GUITAR SHOP | EPIC

BY JULENE SNYDER | It's hard to describe today the depth of feeling that Ann and Nancy could evoke in teenage girls of a certain type back in 1976, when "Dreamboat Annie" first came out. We were the girls with long straight hair, packs of Virginia Slims and plummeting GPAs, aching for love and finding instead older guys with a passion for muscle cars, Led Zeppelin and beer bongs. But at least we had Heart to serve as our surrogate big sisters: Ann and Nancy Wilson understood that we knew the "Magic Man" quite personally. "Mama says she's worried, growing up in a hurry" was quite an understatement where our frantic parents were concerned. "You don't have to love me and let's get high a while" could have been whispered from the mouth of any number of our boyfriends.

It's been quite some time since most of us have gotten wasted on white lightning and wine, but hearing Nancy Wilson belt out "Even it Up" on the opening track of this album -- recorded in Los Angeles in early 1997 -- takes you back those 20 years in a flash. It's a spare record, just Nancy and an acoustic guitar and what sounds like a few dozen people egging her on, but the raucous echo of Heart's heavy-metal influence lingers. A few new songs are on the disc, along with new versions of "These Dreams" and Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes." But it's the familiar tunes that are most satisfying, reminding us of the moment when we first realized that girls could rock hard, too.
SALON | Jan. 26, 1999