Heart's Red Velvet Car, the First New Studio Album in Six Years From Ann & Nancy Wilson, Drives Straight Into the Top 10 of the Billboard 200

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Sep 10, 2010, 01:40 ET

NEW YORK, Sept. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Red Velvet Car, the first new studio album in six years from the groundbreaking Seattle-based band Heart, is entering the Billboard 200 best-selling album charts at #10, becoming the seventh Top 10 album of the group's career. Heart's first album for Legacy Recordings, the critically-acclaimed Red Velvet Car marks the return of the group to the Sony Music Entertainment family. The album reached #1 in sales on Amazon.com on Sunday, September 5.

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"We are thrilled and a little in disbelief," said Ann Wilson. "(Our producer) Ben Mink's amazing artistry and vision, along with the hard work and dedication of the people of Sony/Legacy made this a stunning first week. The Car is running fine, thank you! "

"After 3 plus decades, to have loyal fans, old and new, and to be acknowledged for our work as performers and songwriters is really quite beautiful," said Nancy Wilson.

Currently in the midst of a summer-fall tour supporting the release of Red Velvet Car, Heart's Ann and Nancy Wilson will perform on the star-studded Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) primetime roadblock television fundraising event (September 10, 2010, at 8PM ET & PT / 7PM CT). The Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) telecast will raise funds that will accelerate innovative cancer research. The live, one-hour fundraising event will be simulcast commercial-free on ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, Bio, Current TV, Discovery Health, E!, G4, HBO, HBO Latino, MLB Network, mun2, Showtime, Smithsonian Channel, The Style Network, TV One and VH1 and hosted by network news anchors Katie Couric, Diane Sawyer and Brian Williams. The broadcast will air in 195 countries, as well as on the Armed Forces Network.

Heart will be heard on NPR's "World Cafe" on September 17 to perform songs from Red Velvet Car. Both "Hey You" and "WTF," the first two singles from Red Velvet Car, are multi-format smashes, garnering airplay on the nation's AC, Triple A and Classic Rock radio stations.

The critical response to Red Velvet Car has been universally ecstatic. "The barracudas are back and at the top of their game," wrote Rolling Stone (September 2, 2010) while USA Today (August 25, 2010) called the album "Intimate, intense and anchored by Ann's powerhouse vocals and Nancy's aggressive acoustic guitar...." The New York Times (August 4, 2010) found Red Velvet Car "aggressive, delicate and enduring" while the Los Angeles Times noted that "Thirty-four years after the band's debut, Heart's dreamboat sails on."

For their first new album since 2004's Jupiter's Darling, the first ladies of arena rock took an acoustic approach to a collection of songs inspired by the world around them, arranged for an assortment of strings including guitar, mandolin, dobro, banjo, fiddle, viola, cello and autoharp, all played by Nancy Wilson and the album's producer, multiple Grammy nominee Ben Mink.

Nine of the album's songs were written for, and appear for the first time on Red Velvet Car. The album's closer, "Sand," is a newly recorded version of a song originally written and recorded by the Lovemongers, Ann and Nancy's 1990's acoustic side project.

Heart performed songs from Red Velvet Car, as well as classics from the band's repertoire, at selected Lilith Fair dates and in headline concerts across the U.S. and Canada from July through September. Tour details available on the Heart website. Upcoming Heart tour dates include

9/18/2010	Universal City, CA	Gibson Amphitheater
9/19/2010	LeMoore, CA	Tachi Palace
9/21/2010	Eugene, OR	Cuthbert Amphitheater
9/23/2010	Santa Rosa, CA	Wells Fargo Center for the Arts
9/24/2010	Ridgefield, WA	Sleep Country Amphitheater
9/25/2010	Puyallup, WA	Western Washington Fair
11/4/2010	Houston, TX	House of Blues
11/5/2010	Topeka, KS	Kansas Expocentre
11/6/2010	Newkirk, OK	First Council Casino
11/13/2010	Las Vegas, NV	Las Vegas Hilton

Heart is slated to appear as the exclusive musical guest star on the Brian Boitano Christmas special airing December 26 on NBC.

Ann Wilson and her younger sister, Nancy Wilson, first showed the world that women can rock when their band Heart stormed the charts in the '70s with hits like "Crazy on You," "Magic Man," "Barracuda," 'Straight On," "Even It Up," "Kick It Out" and so many more. Not only did the Wilson sisters lead the band, they wrote the songs, and played the instruments too, making them the first women in rock to do so. Heart continued topping the charts through the '80s and into the '90s with huge hits like "These Dreams," "Alone," "What About Love," "If Looks Could Kill," "Never," and a string of other hits that showcased the sisters' enormous talents as both musicians and singers. Along the way, Heart sold more than 30 million records, had 21 top 40 hits, sold out arenas worldwide, and had a profound influence on rock music.

Heart were 2008 recipients of VH1 Rock Honors, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Northwest Grammy Foundation, and received ASCAP's award for Excellence in Songwriting in 2009.

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SOURCE Legacy Recordings