Used with permission of CMA Closeup News Service
By Edward Morris
Still Restless. That's what Restless Heart calls its brand new, first studio album together in 14 years. And the title tells it all: The five-man group is still a torrent of tightly woven, pop-flavored vocal harmonies, still jockeying for its niche in Country Music, still made up of the same guys and - most significant of all - still here.
Comprised of seasoned musicians, including drummer John Dittrich, bassist Paul Gregg, keyboardist Dave Innis, guitarist Greg Jennings and vocalist Larry Stewart, Restless Heart made its debut on RCA Records in 1985 with the single "Let the Heartache Ride." Although it reached only No. 23 on the charts, every single thereafter for the next five years went Top 10 or higher. Six rocketed to No. 1 including such milestones as "I'll Still Be Loving You," "Wheels" and "Bluest Eyes In Texas." Sales were good too as four of the band's albums went Gold.
The '90s were less kind. First there was the sudden rise of the solo superstars: Clint Black, Vince Gill, Alan Jackson and Garth Brooks. Then there were the internal squabbles that sometimes afflict every group. Stewart, the band's distinctive lead singer, bowed out in 1992 to pursue a solo career. A year later, Innis took his leave. The remaining three principals carried on with supplemental players, but they never regained the stature of their glory days. Still, the Restless Heart brand carried cachet.
"We were offered [a deal] to put out a greatest hits package over at RCA, where we'd worked for so many years," Stewart said. "That was in '98. Four of the five of us [excluding Innis] got back together and put out the greatest hits thing and recorded two new songs with our old producers, Tim DuBois and Scott Hendricks. We ended up getting offered a Vince Gill tour. So we toured with Vince for a year or year and a half."
The reunion might have fizzled at that point had Innis not returned. "Scott Hendricks called me one day," Stewart related, "and said, 'Guess who I'm having lunch with today?' I said, 'Who?' And he said, 'Dave Innis.' ... Dave had been so far removed from all of us for so long. Then, all of a sudden, he comes back to town. It wasn't a real nice parting when he left."
Then Paul Gregg met with Innis. "They laughed and cried and buried the hatchet," Stewart continued. "Over the next days and weeks, we all talked about what it would be like for the five of us to get back together." When they convened for their first rehearsal, Stewart said, "It was awesome from the very first note."