DVD Review: "Heart - The Road Home" (2003)

The Wilson sisters go unplugged in this intimate performance, taped in the spring of 1995 in their hometown of Seattle and released in 2003. Backed by a string section and using bongo drums, flutes and mandolins, this DVD offers up a cross-section of their career that alternates between Jann Arden-esque adult contemporary and material that sounds like it could have been based on outtakes from the Led Zeppelin III sessions.

Naturally, I prefer the latter.

Hits like "Straight On" and "Crazy On You" are here, but I would have preferred if junk from latter days like "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You" was dropped in favour of tracks like "Little Queen", "Heartless" (some of the best harmonies in rock history on that song) and "Magic Man", a tune which provided the backdrop to a classic scene from the movie "Swingers".

Even though she's noticeably aged over the years, Ann can still belt it out and Nancy's picking is excellent, especially on "Barracuda" which loses none of its formidable power when done acoustically. Trusty sideman Howard Leese provides the texture and I believe that John Paul Jones himself was part of this project and contributed to the arrangements.

Tasteful, if uneven, and glad I picked it up in the used section.

Overall rating: 7/10