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Chris Ousey's first main achievement
was with Polygram recording artists "Monroe" with guitarist
Gary Sharpe, but Chris never made it to the album as he was snatched
in the pre-production stages by John Bonham's son, Jason,
for his new band of the moment, Virginia Wolf. The band
notched up 250,000 album sales between two records in the
form of their self titled debut (produced by Queen's Roger
Taylor) and "Push" (produced by Keith Olsen). The band also
managed to tour with "The Firm" in the USA.
Heartland was actually formed by Chris with Gary Sharpe and their
self titled debut on A & M Records in the early nineties
was produced by James "Jimbo" Barton. Barton
eventually teamed up with Heartland bassist Phil Brown
and the pair went on to produce Trixter, Steve Perry and Queensryche.
Heartland originally toured with Mr. Big in support of their debut
album. Chris and Gary later got together and put out "Wide
Open" in 1994, an album that has recently been reissued
by Escape Music with bonus tracks. Later that year Chris
met guitarist Steve Morris. Steve is a guitar virtuoso
and as experienced as Chris in his own field having recorded
two albums with Epic recording artist's "Export"
(Living in fear of the Private Eye and Export) as well as touring
with their own independent album supporting Slade. Through
Export he got to work with Tony Bongiovi and Lance Quinn
as well as writing with Bob Halligan Jnr. and Michael Bolton.
Finally, Steve became guitarist for Ex-Deep Purple vocalist
Ian Gillan and recorded three albums in addition to co-writing all
the material, before he hooked up with Chris Ousey.
The album Heartland III, which was essentially the first release on
the then newly formed Escape Music label, has done extremely
well since its release in November, 1995 and five years
later is still very much a popular album. This third outing
was considered more commercial than the previous two albums,
but nevertheless kept the rock fan's respect as well as gaining a
wider audience. In early 1997 the brand new album "Bridge
of Fools" was unleashed, with a return to rock roots
and more of a 'band' feel. Along with Chris on lead vocals
and Steve on guitars, Say keyboards player Chris Lloyd and original
Heartland drummer Steve Gibson joined the line-up, together with bassist
Tim Duncan. At this point in time, Escape Music was working
on many other projects, one of these being Vancouver based
band "Pokerface" (Life's A Gamble ESM 008). This
particular outfit is fronted by Darcy Deutsch (Prism) and
features guitarist/song writer/producer Kenny "Kaos" Loney.
Kenny was to become very much a part of Heartland when
Steve was tied up recording "Dream Catcher" with
Ian Gillan. Hence, the collaboration between Chris and Kenny,
culminating in the release of a melodic masterpiece called "The
Distance" in November, 1997 which coincided with a
tour in Germany supporting Brazen Abbot and Jeff Paris.
At the time of the tour Steve had completed his work with
Ian Gillan and so was able to play alongside Kenny in the set.
Soon after, the production started for "Miracles by Design",
the fifth Heartland album. The album was released in May,
98 and recorded in Parr Street Studio's (Belonging to Genesis's
management) using Ken Nelson as sound engineer. As keyboards
player Chris Lloyd (Say) had recently been injured in a
car crash, Steve Morris had to finish the keyboards before the
tapes went to Vancouver for completion. Kenny made his contribution
to the album and "Distance" cohorts John Counsel
and Dave Hopia added keys and bass respectively. Loverboy/Blackstone
man Paul Dean in his own Vancouver studios carried out
the mixing. Chris and Steve have both expanded their already
sound experience by working with many Escape Music artists
in recent years, examples being Change of Heart, Message,
Radio Silence and Newman. Their production and input is
clearly evident. The new album: Since the release
of "Miracles", Heartland have released a sixth (acoustic)
album "When Angels Call" featuring songs old and new and
the Heartland wagon train is rolling ahead into a new millennium.
The Ousey/Morris core backed with original drummer Steve
Gibson, bass player Tim Hewitt (Boulevard) and keyboards
aficionado Steve Millington (10cc) now make up the Heartland
line-up. "As it Comes" is the title of the new
Heartland album, a major leap forward by the band in the
way that it combines all of their best elements and brings
them out in a truly explosive manner. The seventh album is something
special, something different, something exciting.. and no one is going
to be disappointed. More importantly, this album rocks!
This is a winning album, with production from Steve Morris
himself, mixing by Ray Roper (Stonebolt) and mastering
by the ever-present Craig Wadell. The winning formula of
"As it Comes" will put Heartland firmly in the number
one slot, where they rightfully belong.
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