Heart By Heart
Heart tribute band featuring founding bassist Steve Fossen, and original Heart drummer Michael DeRosier
When: 9 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 26
Here: 7 Cedars Casino’s Club Seven, 270756 US Highway 101
Admission: Free (21 and older)
On the web: www.heartbyheart.com, www.facebook.com/HeartByHeartBand, www.7cedarsresort.com/heart-by-heart.html?evtd=2019-01-26
More than 40 years after the seminal rock band Heart formed, the songs remain the same.
Bassist Steve Fossen and drummer Michael DeRosier, original members of the band that saw Billboard top 200 albums in four decades, come to Blyn’s 7 Cedars Casino on Jan. 26 with Heart By Heart, a group that looks to preserve those chart hits in their essential forms for longtime fans and Heart newcomers alike.
“When some bands re-imagine their tunes (from what) made it a hit; they make it unrecognizable,” said Fossen, in an interview with the Sequim Gazette last week.
“The only way it’s going to work is that we be faithful to how they were — they way they were conceived, created, written and recorded and, back in the day, how they sounded when we toured.
“That’s what I want to hear when I go to see, say, Deep Purple.”
Heart fans can expect to hear familiar hits such as “Magic Man,” “Dreamboat Annie,” “Crazy on You,” “Barracuda” and “Little Queen” from Heart By Heart, a Northwest-based group featuring vocalist Somar Macek, guitarist-keyboardist-vocalist Lizzy Daymont and guitarist Chad Quist, along with Fossen and DeRosier.
“I get a kick out of (playing) most of them,” said Fossen.
And plenty concert-goers get a kick of of hearing those hits years later, he said.
“It brings back memories,” Fossen said. “We’ve even had people coming up with tears in their eyes for bringing back songs the way they remember them. They’ve very grateful and we’re happy to do it.”
Heart formed in 1973 and broke onto the national scene by 1975, charting album best-selling albums such as “Dreamboat Annie,” “Magazine,” “Little Queen,” “Dog & Butterfly,” “Bebe Le Strange” and “Private Audition.”
“We went from selling five records to double platinum in one year,” Fossen said. “Kind of a heady experience to go through. It’s stuff that we went through not very many people have done.”
To date, Heart has sold more than 35 million records worldwide, band publicists say, including more than 22.5 million in album sales in the U.S. The group was ranked number 57 on VH1’s “100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock.”
Fossen said that the “Magic Man” single has edged past “Barracuda” in popularity, Fossen said.
“We still get royalties for the sales and play of stuff that we played on,” he said.
All six original Heart members — Ann and Nancy Wilson, Howard Leese and Roger Fisher, with Fossen and DeRosier — were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. The band teamed up to play “Crazy On You.”
“It was like riding a bike; it just came out of us,” Fossen recalled. “People were thrilled to see and hear the band play together (again). What a great honor.”
Heart By Heart traces its origins back to 2008, Fossen said, when he, Fisher and DeRosier met up with Macek at numerous functions and eventually teamed up to do some Heart covers at events. Fossen and Macek wound up forming a romance and the two have since married.
The pair played a number of events as bass and vocal duo for a while, playing bistros, jam nights, dinner parties and even a wedding. That formed into bigger and bigger events as their popularity grew, and after forming a full band in 2009, Heart By Heart began playing a number of larger shows in the Seattle area.
“Then we got noticed on East Coast; that turned into more gigs over there,” Fossen said. “It just grew from there.”
“We’re just pinching ourselves.”
And while nothing compares to what Heart did “back in the day,” the bassist said, “we’re really happy with the band right now.” Macek began singing at age 2 and developed a reputation in the Northwest for her vocal range, while Quist is a 30-year West Coast music touring scene veteran. A lifelong musician, Daymont hails from Chicago and later relocated to Seattle where she has been active in the music scene for nearly two decades.
The Jan. 26 show at 7 Cedars is not new territory for Fossen, DeRosier and company. Heart By Heart has graced the casino’s stage several times before.
“We really appreciate 7 Cedars; back when Heart By Heart started, they gave us a chance,” Fossen said.
“We have a great relationship with the casino and the people that work there; they get a big kick out of us,” he said.
“It’s places like that that keep the band rolling,” Fossen said, and allow Heart By Heart to parlay it into a national presence.
The gig allows Heart By Heart band members to reconnect with Greg and Sasha Vogtritter of Olympic Cellars Winery — “We’re good friends looking forward to connecting with them,” Fossen said — and sample cuisine at Sequim’s Oak Table Café, one of the band’s favored local dining spots.
For more about Heart By Heart, see www.heartby heart.com orwww.facebook.com/HeartByHeartBand.
