Heart’s Nancy Wilson beats a path to Canyon Santa Clarita Dec. 7

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Heart co-founder/guitarist/singer and Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame inductee Nancy Wilson will rock the Canyon Santa Clarita with the music of Heart and more Friday, Dec. 7.

“Heart took a hiatus for a little while, and I got this itch to put together a band with three members from Heart – Dan Rothchild, Chris Joyner and Ben Smith – to play with me and Liv Warfield and her guitar player, Ryan Waters, who both came out of Prince’s New Power Generation,” Wilson said, calling from the road.

“Liv had opened for Heart at the Hollywood Bowl a couple years ago, and she and I hit it off fast,” Wilson said. “She said, ‘We should talk about doing something if (Heart is) going to be off the road for a while.’ I said, ‘Let’s do it!’

“We put the band together pretty quickly and made an album called ‘First Things First,’” she said. “It’s my second rock band. We call it ‘Nancy Wilson with Roadcase Royale.’”

Heart’s Rothchild produced the album, and legendary rock photographer Neal Preston, longtime Heart tour shooter, directed its first video, “Get Loud,” which premiered on Rolling Stone’s website in September 2017.

While half the bandmembers — Wilson, Rothchild and Joyner — live in L.A., “Ben and Ryan are in Seattle and Liv is in Chicago,” Wilson said. “When we write new music, we do a lot of emails. Sure, it’s much nicer to be in the same room with your collaborators, but it’s so doable nowadays with technology. It’s great.”

After releasing “First Things First,” in spring 2017, the group’s first roadwork to support it was a series of dates with Bob Seger on his “Runaway Train” tour with The Silver Bullet Band.

“That was our initiation as a rock band,” Wilson said. “Opening for Bob Seger was a dream come true.”

Friday night’s show at the Canyon Santa Clarita is part of a mini-West Coast tour.

“We’re doing a bunch of Heart songs that you will not believe the way Liv Warfield sings them,” Wilson said.

“I sing some of the big Heart hits people recognize, too, like ‘Barracuda,’ ‘Crazy on You,’ ‘These Dreams’ and ‘What About Love?’” she said. “Then we do some stuff from ‘First Things First,’ which people have responded super-positive to. I think we’re a really great little band, and we conduct a very loud and proud rock show.”

Wilson said she and her sister and Heart co-founder Ann Wilson may regroup with Rothchild, Joyner and Smith for a tour in the spring or summer of 2019.  

“Right now, there’s a really good offer on the table,” she said. “All of the powers are fleshing out details, but it looks really good.”
Find the Canyon Santa Clarita on the ground floor of the Westfield Valencia Town Center. Get tickets at the box office 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Saturday, by phone at 888-645-5006, or via TicketMaster.com. For more info, visit WheremusicmeetstheSoul.com.

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