Ann Wilson might have mastered the art of blending various genres at once, but her musical favourites usually always centre around how much they manage to grip her heart. Though her love for music spawned from an appreciation of the greats, like The Beatles, many of those she discovered along the way taught her about the art of eclecticism and the heart of filtering emotions into a single voice.
Wilson’s connection with powerful singers began much earlier after discovering albums like Harry Belafonte’s Belafonte at Carnegie Hall, which exposed her to the power of singing at around eight years old. Belafonte’s vocal range and the various emotions he injects into his performance showed a young Wilson what exceptional vocalisation could be, subconsciously planting a lifelong fixation in her mind.
After that, she accrued a collection of early iteration rock ‘n’ roll before moving on to esteemed works like Simon and Garfunkel’s Bookends, The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers, The Moody Blues’ In Search of the Lost Chord, Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin IV, and, of course, anything by The Beatles that she could get her hands on. With Zeppelin, in particular, she realised her appreciation for eclecticism and the explosiveness of it done right, which she then filtered into her own work within Heart.
Wilson also fell in love with folk music and exceptional singer-songwriters for their ability to capture a moment, abstract idea, mundane event, or unexpected happenstance and make it sound like one of the most relatable and beautiful revelations in the world. Joni Mitchell, for instance, created “a lifelong friend” for Wilson when she penned Hejira because the “songs are full of the rich imagery of the things and people she encounters and interlaced with her poetic, unforgiving introspections”.
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