Ann Wilson – Hope & Glory

Despite having numerous gold and platinum albums to her name, is it possible Ann Wilson is an underrated singer? It would seem so.

As the powerhouse vocalist of Heart, Wilson, along with her sister Nancy, helped clear the path for a generation of female rockers to come. But by the time the Lilith Fair was born and the term “women in rock” became a media buzz phrase, the Wilsons — already two decades into their career — were relegated to godmother status.

Then, too, in the videocentric ’80s and ’90s, the band was actually complicit in marginalizing Ann’s presence, shooting her only in extreme close-up, or sticking her in the background while Nancy scissor-kicked and flashed her decolletage.

Hope & Glory isn’t an attempt to make up for past slights all at once. It’s mostly a covers album, on which Wilson sings a handful of rock and folk-rock classics, including Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song”, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising”, and the Youngbloods’ “Darkness Darkness” and “Get Together”, and shares the spotlight with Elton John, k.d. lang, Wynonna, Gretchen Wilson, Alison Krauss and others (including her sister).

Despite its optimistic title, the disc’s mood is dark, with Wilson addressing topics such as war, environmental concerns and personal travails on Pink Floyd’s “Goodbye Blue Sky”, Neil Young’s “War Of Man” (a luminous if dread-filled duet with Krauss) and John Lennon’s “Isolation”. Wilson contributed one original song to the disc, “Little Problems, Little Lies”, a moving lament from a dying soldier.

Some tracks are a tad too faithful to the originals, but producer Ben Mink’s pristine arrangements almost always offer a few new twists on tried-and-true classics. Wilson’ voice, still by turns lullaby sweet and hammer-of-the-gods lethal, combines well with nearly all her duet guests. But Nancy remains her best-suited singing partner. On Hope & Glory, she offers nothing but support, leaving Ann out front on her own. It’s where she’s belonged all this time.