Heart's Nancy Wilson Cures Insomnia With 'Baby Guitars'

Heart's Nancy Wilson has a cure for insomnia. It's not pharmaceutical, it's not herbal and it doesn't require reading self-help books. The guitarist has made a CD of soothing lullabies, 'Baby Guitars,' that initially was designed to woo babies into the land of slumber. "A friend of mine was having a baby a few years back and the idea came up that a good gift would be lullabies of instrumental guitar music, acoustic music," Wilson tells Spinner. "I put that together in part and she raved about it. She said it really, really worked and I should finish it."

So, Wilson brought in Heart guitarist Craig Bartock and the veteran rock band's keyboard player Debbie Shair to finish the record. It just so happened that Wilson and her sister, Heart singer Ann, were already working on a bedtime storybook, 'Dog & Butterfly,' which is based on Heart's 1978 song of that name. Ann wrote the text and the pair illustrated the story together. "We're both mothers and doing things for the little ones is one of the best things to do," Nancy says. Both the book and CD were released simultaneously, Oct. 6, through Amazon, and the Wilsons' friends who've tried the CD to lull their children to sleep have already scored it with full marks. "The reviews just kept coming back, even from my own kids, that it really helps them settle into a sleep," Nancy says. "It creates a comfortable atmosphere to fall asleep to."

The big question is, does it work for insomniac adults also? "I've given it to a lot of my bigger friends too, my adult friends," Nancy laughs. "They really like to put it on to create a relaxed mood. It's a really nice dinnertime mood or at bedtime. It works for big people, too."