Nancy Wilson on Teaming Up With Liv Warfield in Roadcase Royale
In stores today (September 22) is First Things First, the debut album from Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson‘s new band Roadcase Royale.
The set features a selection of original tracks as well as covers of the Heart favorites “These Dreams” and “Even It Up.” Wilson met vocalist Liv Warfield, an alumnus of Prince’s New Power Generation, when her band Blackbird — with Roadcase Royale guitarist Ryan Waters — opened for Heart during 2015, and the two formed a fast friendship that resulted in a new musical direction for all concerned:
“She was like, ‘I want to rock more. I’d like to do more rock.’ ‘Well, I like the R&B stuff. Why don’t we do something together.’ So it fell together. I got my guys, she brought her guitar player, we started rehearsing and right off the bat it was amazing. We started just creating new songs and finding kind of a sound for ourselves, and we fell naturally together with the sort of rock ‘n’ soul ethic that both of us needed from the other part of the other people.”
Roadcase Royale is currently on the road opening for Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band and will play a headlining date on October 17 at the Joy Theater in New Orleans.
Heart, meanwhile, is on an open-ended hiatus due to an estrangement between Wilson and her older sister, vocalist Ann Wilson.
Gary Graff is an award-winning music journalist who not only covers music but has written books on Bob Seger, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.
