When it comes to female rockers, there are a few artists who are immediately recognized whenever they start to sing. One such is Ann Wilson of the group Heart. Her power, control, and passion are palpable in whatever song she chooses to sing — whether it’s an original song or a cover she makes her own with her distinctive stylings. So, when I heard there was a tribute band called Heartless that was coming to the Somerset Abbey in Madison, I figured it would be worthwhile to chat with the lead singer Jasmine White. I reached White at her home in Vermont on a Tuesday morning and asked:

Q: You’re coming up to do a performance at Somerset Abbey. Have you played there before?
White: We have not. This will be a new venue for us. They’ve been really nice so far, so we’re excited to play the show there.

Q: How did you get going on this Heartless project?
White: Well, my lullaby when I was a baby was “Dog & Butterfly” and so I immediately took to the voice of Ann Wilson, and that’s how I learned how to sing —it’s always been a dream of mine to do a tribute for her. Then in my adult life, I dabbled a lot in community theater and various cover bands, but I just was never satisfied with the performance aspect of that. I knew what I wanted to do. So, as I dabbled in different cover bands in my 30s, I finally decided to select those musicians that really spoke to me and the ones that were the best to work with and had the talent to meet the challenge. So we developed {the act} in January of 2016 and we’ve been pretty much going since. We’ve been on the road since 2018, as far as touring around New England.

Q: Well, it sounds like your dream finally came true.
White: It was a no-brainer for me — it was a natural act — and then hand-picking the other seven musicians that are with me is what took a while. The group that we have now is just perfect, they’re phenomenal.

Q: Have you performed in Maine before?
White: We have. We did a Downunder Club in Bangor in 2018, we’ve done mixes a couple of times up in Lewiston, and that’s really it, we haven’t ventured out too, too much. But we’re excited to hit the Somerset Abbey and see the crowd there.

Q: Now, because Heart has an incredible catalog of material out there, how do you go about choosing a set list that doesn’t keep you onstage for three or four hours?
White: (Laughter) Well, our sets are ever-changing but one of the things that I’ll point out is that Heartless isn’t a tribute to Heart, we’re a tribute to Ann Wilson of Heart and that opens the catalog even further if you can imagine (chuckle). So we play the best of Heart classics that everybody loves — “Magic Man,” “Barracuda,” “Straight On,” all of those; but we also dabble in a little bit of her original material that she’s done in her later years, with her “Fierce Bliss” album, and then she’s done a lot of covers that people recognize now going solo.

Q: And some of those covers have appeared in Heart concerts that I’ve seen over the years, as well. I can think of a couple from a band with the initials LZ, for instance.
White: Yeah, Heart has always covered Led Zeppelin, since 1973 they do two to three Zeppelin songs in every tour that they’ve done, so our Zeppelin catalog is really dense. She’s also done some covers like “Dream On” with Aerosmith, “Baba O’Riley” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” with The Who, and so on and so forth. So every time we hit a new year of touring we reset our entire show to keep it fun and interesting and different. And, more importantly, to keep us challenged and on our feet because if you’re not challenged in music there’s no point in playing it, you will never learn everything there is to know with music, so that’s what keeps us really happy and humble with what we do.

Q: With that thought in mind, what’s a Heartless set like?
White: Our set is really diverse. I wear a lot of Ann Wilson original outfits that I’ve gotten from her assistant through an auction — every now and again she’ll switch over her stage gear and certain pieces will go up for auction. I’ve been able to secure a couple pieces of those and wear them on stage. And we’ve also had the opportunity to ask her questions, and I can’t do too much of a spoiler alert, you’ll have to come to the show to see it. We’ve been able to ask her: “What are the messages you want us to bring forward to your fans because they are your fans, it’s your music, it’s your lyrics, how do you want us best to present that for you when you’re not in the area?” So we give that piece, as well; and it really speaks about community connections, inclusion and the love of music, as it is, it makes it a very heartfelt show — pun intended! We always have people at the end of the show just ready for life, they’re filled with love, the energy in the room is gi-normous, and we get goosebumps every time we play if that says anything (laughter).

Q: If you get goosebumps, you know you’re doing something right, that’s for sure.
White: Absolutely, absolutely!

Q: And, let’s face it, her voice is so distinctive and instantly recognizable, at least I think so.
White: Her voice has changed in her age — it’s not for better or for worse — she’s just changed. I think her voice is more full-bodied now, and she’s really come into her own as far as making that standard rock ‘n’ roll voice epic. You put on the record, I’m still stuck in my records, and you instantly know, “Oh, that’s Ann Wilson!” Her tone and the way that she hits notes {White sings to demonstrate} no one else does it the way that she does, I love that about her and she’s set such a great standard for women in rock ‘n’ roll.

Q: Well, between the stage outfits you’ve gotten and the faithfulness of your treatment of her music, that’s like an endorsement, in a way.
White: Well, we did get a small endorsement from her this year. At the beginning of the year the band and I had sat down and said that there’s so much dissension in the world today, whether its sexuality, whether it’s your income, whether it’s your politics: everybody on social media has to argue with somebody else about something, there’s such a disconnect that’s happening. We wanted to take her music and promote coming back together, having each other’s back regardless of differences — and one of the songs that we’re debuting this year is the Heart song, “Allies,” and it talks about exactly that. We reached out to her and we said, “We really want to highlight this song for this purpose as we go around New England to play these shows …we feel it’s so important right now for people to remember that it takes a community to come together, to respect each other, to move forward with positive changes — whatever those changes are.” So when we told her about using that song in our mission, we asked her what she thought about that and her response was, “It is very timely, it’s important and you have 100% my blessing!” We were really excited to receive that from her, and we are carrying that forward for her.

Q: Is there anything, Jasmine, that you’d like me to pass on to the folks reading this article, especially seeing this is your first time at Somerset Abbey?
White: I want to invite them to be a part of the community, loving connection in that movement with us, to us that’s why we do exactly what we do, everything else aside, it all comes from our hearts to them.

Lucky Clark, a 2018 “Keeping the Blues Alive” Award winner, has spent more than 50 years writing about good music and the people who make it. He can be reached at luckyc@myfairpoint.net if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.

Copy the Story Link

Comments are not available on this story.