I Loved Her First

All it takes for a popular regional act to be catapulted into the national spotlight is one special song. Suddenly hometown heroes find themselves climbing the charts and enjoying that first brush of stardom. That is exactly what's happening to Heartland, a talented band of Alabama musicians who are rapidly becoming the most talked about new act in country music. Collectively, Heartland encompasses a variety of musical influences including Johnny Cash, Alabama, Van Halen, Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys, AC/DC, Otis Redding and Sam Cooke. Each member of the band grew up absorbing a rather diverse musical diet and those varied influences have helped shape the full-bodied, robust sound that defines Heartland's musical persona. Like all young bands Heartland practiced, performed and dreamed of stardom. Seeing that whole package earned the band an enthusiastic legion of fans. In addition to headlining their own shows, they've opened for Kenny Chesney, Gretchen Wilson, Neal McCoy, Diamond Rio and many others. The members of Heartland soon found themselves in the studio working with hit songwriter-producer Walt Aldridge, a member of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. That association led to the group's fast-rising single, "I Loved Her First," which was penned by Aldridge and Elliott Parks. Working with Aldridge in Muscle Shoals' Fame Studios, the band has put together a potent collection of songs defined by the inimitable Heartland sound. Jason says the band takes pride in that fact that there's no one else that sounds quite like they do when they get together. It's a unique sound forged from years under hot spotlights in sweaty clubs with audiences on their feet screaming for more. It also comes from years of friendship, camaraderie and a shared musical vision. When one spends any amount of time around these guys, their respect for each other and their friendship is obvious. After all they've been through a lot together. Talent, drive and a great sense of humor, country music fans are connecting to those qualities & so much more with Heartland. Like the image their name evokes, this group of young men personifies the best of America's country lifestyle, & they connect with audiences because their music reflects the hopes, challenges & dreams of everyone out there in the heartland and beyond.

Despite the touching title ballad, most of Heartland's debut is as generically bland as the Alabama group's name, and a little too stylistically eclectic to establish much of an identity. "Freebird in a Firebird" celebrates the glory days of Lynyrd Skynyrd, the sexual fantasy of "Let's Get Dirty" channels both the Rolling Stones and the Who, and the obligatory countrier-than-thou anthem, "Too Country," comes from the Hank Williams Jr. school. Yet treacle such as "You" would be rejected by '70s soft-rockers Bread as too wimpy, and "Play Hurt" and "Built to Last" are simply catalogs of clichés. Recorded with veteran producer-songwriter Walt Aldridge (who shares credit on much of the material, none of it written by the band) at Fame in Muscle Shoals, the band evokes that studio's fabled soul grooves on "No Getting Over Me" and "Judge a Man by the Woman," highlights that show promise. --Don McLeese