About The Band

Tackling a song from one of the all-time seminal albums would be a ballsy move. Reinterpreting the whole of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s 1970 touchstone Déjà Vu? That’s either outrageous courage or complete foolishness. One listen to how The Wandering Hearts have taken the ten songs to new places and reimagined the album over 50 years later, and it’s clear that Déjà Vu (We Have All Been Here Before) is a very bold, very new work by one of Britain’s most accomplished Americana artists.

Yet, for all the inventive flavours the trio have weaved into classic songs including “Our House”, “Woodstock” and “Teach Your Children”, and how transformative it is to hear female voices newly lead such familiar anthems like “Almost Cut My Hair” and “Helpless”, the key to The Wandering Hearts’ take on CSN&Y is how joyous their version sounds and how escapist Déjà Vu is in their hands.

Déjà Vu (We Have All Been Here Before) - retitled because, well, we have. Although never quite like this - isn’t an album out to besmirch the original, but to become a loving companion to it, without being an overly reverential copy. With a band as distinctive and exciting as The Wandering Hearts, a note-for-note facsimile was never going to be an option.

Having established themselves as one of the UK’s most innovative Americana groups The Wandering Hearts are now ready to take on such a classic, Championed by Bob Harris at Radio 2, the trio of Tara Wilcox, Chess Whiffin and AJ Dean have twice reached No 1 in Official Charts’ Americana/Country Chart and been nominated for Album Of The Year at the UK Americana Awards. They’ve shared stages with the likes of Tom Petty, Eagles, Robert Plant and John Prine, touring the States in 2024 with Lissie.

Such feats are a base for The Wandering Hearts to know their innate gift for stunning harmonies would find new depths to CSN&Y’s already mesmerising songs, as Tara explains: “Because of the way our voices work together, whenever we sing something it’s going to sound like The Wandering Hearts. We don’t have to work too hard to put our spin on this, because we just aren’t four men from 1970. Having two female voices gives this a new spin straight away.”

Tara’s powerhouse vocals upend “Almost Cut My Hair”, instantly turning a classic protest anthem into a rallying beacon of female empowerment. The trio initially thought AJ would be the natural choice to sing it, as he laughs: “I had long hair when we were recording the album.” But then they realised Tara’s dramatic voice would send a more powerful message. As Chess puts it: “Coming from a woman, ‘Almost Cut My Hair’ sounds like a revolution. I love the balls and the grit Tara brings to it.”

Conversely, Chess’ tender lead vocals on “Helpless” turn the ballad into something devastating, an almost unbearably intimate experience for the listener. “What Chess does with ‘Helpless’ is so sweet and tender,” says Tara. “As soon as we heard it, me and AJ started crying.”The Wandering Hearts knew the original Déjà Vu intimately before covering it: Tara’s American father even saw CSN&Y play at Woodstock. “It was a record that was always on at home,” she recalls. “Those songs feel like they’ve always been there.” “That’s so true,” agrees Chess. “Growing up, Déjà Vu was a constant at home. And the album just hasn’t aged, it still sounds so fresh.” AJ admits he’s a relative newcomer to CSN&Y, having discovered Neil Young through a friend at college. “My dad was a big Stephen Stills fan,” he says. “I’d heard Déjà Vu as a kid and thought it was solid, but I didn’t think I liked Neil Young. Then, when I heard him at college, it was like being introduced to an old friend. I was drawn to Neil’s energy, and then I couldn’t get enough. I still can’t.”With the album a big love for the whole band, it was natural for them to start playing around with its songs at rehearsals. “It clicked,” remembers Tara. “This felt like something we had to do.”

The trio were aware they had to get the balance right between homage and reinvention in thinking how to reinvent the original record, as AJ reveals: “The more we talked about it, the more the idea of doing it ourselves appealed. With a cover, you either have to do something so different that it becomes something new, or because you love it so much that you have to pay tribute. I think our version of Déjà Vu is something in between.” The Wandering Hearts instinctively knew they could add layers to these familiar songs, as AJ continues: “We wanted to do a Wandering Hearts reimagining of the original album. With two female and one male vocalist, it’s bound to be different. That took the pressure off how to reimagine it, while still showing what we love about the original.” What cemented Déjà Vu (We Have All Been Here Before) becoming a reality was meeting Pearl Charles and Michael Rault. Eclectic singer-songwriter Pearl and Michael – a singer-turned-producer, who has worked with US Girls and July Talk – were immediate kindred spirits.

“We knew we could do something new with Déjà Vu, but it’s such a classic record that everyone loves that actually doing it felt a little daunting,” admits Tara. “Meeting Pearl and Michael, we knew that we’d have fun trying to make it a reality. We could go to the desert, hang out with our mates and jam out these songs that we all already adored.” In a similar spirit to David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young’s own diverse talents merged so powerfully on the original Déjà Vu, so The Wandering Hearts were able to stamp their identity on these classic songs at Pearl and Michael’s home in Joshua Tree, aided by a similarly eclectic range of fellow musicians. “The album became more collaborative than we’d imagined once we met Michael and Pearl,” ponders Chess. “Making it with them, we’d have gone wherever.” But it certainly helped that the couple’s home was in the Californian desert. “It was like travelling back in time,” laughs Chess, as Tara adds: “Their home hasn’t been redeveloped since the 60s. There’s no aircon, and their cooker is a pull-out hob. I’m amazed it still works!”

The Wandering Hearts were helped by an accomplished band featuring drummer Garret Ray (Olivia Rodrigo, Sia), bassist Dustin Bookatz (Wim, Hero Fisher) and keyboardist Doug Organ (Linda Perry, Tegan And Sara). AJ says: “They live and breathe this music, and they absolutely blew us away. I can’t now think of how we could have done this record with any other people, in any other place.” With the perfect atmosphere, the practicalities of stamping their own identity on the songs began falling into place. The trio decided to initially work on what seemed the most straightforward songs: “Our House”, “4+20” and “Helpless”. “Some of the original songs’ harmonies are incredibly dense,” says Chess. “It was a case of streamlining them, picking out the parts that excite us. It then started to become clear who should sing which parts.” “Sometimes, it’s interesting if you veer away from the obvious choice of who should sing which section,” reasons AJ. “As soon as we figured out who to sing what on “Our House”, it sounded like a different song: it became a Wandering Hearts take on it. Getting that song done helped us to think: ‘Yeah, this is going to be a Wandering Hearts record.’”

Having reworked the original album’s “prettiest, most stripped-back” three songs, the band turned to its most challenging tracks: “Carry On” and “Deja vu”, the multi-layered title track. “Our confidence was up,” recalls Chess. “The record felt achievable. And it was, though “Deja vu” (the song) took longer than we’d care to say! We had to sing it over and over again, starting our harmonies so slowly, then gradually speeding up until the three of us could sing it together.”

“Everybody I Love You” proved especially magical to record, as Chess smiles: “What a privilege it was to sing that song. It was so powerful and uplifting, it felt euphoric to record.”

The experience of making the album only increased The Wandering Hearts’ respect for CSN&Y, as Tara explains: “They obviously put so much thought into sequencing the record. It takes you on a journey of big moments, followed by reflection. It’s a record of emotional peaks and troughs, which we’ve tried to mirror in who sings what: me or AJ singing something harder and rockier, followed by Chess doing something so tender.”

“Country Girl” summed up the album’s challenges, as Chess says: “It’s so pretty, you think it’s just a lovely song. When you listen to it closely, you realise its harmonies are genius. You go: ‘What am I listening to?’” Tara laughs: “Our respect for them was already huge, now it’s only grown.” AJ says: “We’ve made a different record, hopefully while preserving what we love about the original.”

Recording the original album was famously fraught for CSN&Y, but The Wandering Hearts stayed appropriately harmonious in Joshua Tree, as Chess reflects: “Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young did the hard work, writing songs that are already amazing. All we had to do was sing them.” It’s a view echoed by AJ, who adds: “We’re coming at the album from a different place. Putting your own feelings on the line in writing songs is more testing than singing songs you already love.”

The Wandering Hearts’ Déjà Vu (We Have All Been Here Before) arrives barely a year after their third album, Mother, which continued their reputation as one of the finest vocal groups in any field. Popmatters hailed it as: “The Wandering Hearts offer stillness in a chaotic world,” while Americana UK called it: “Sensitive…threaded together by their luminous signature harmonies.”

That they’ve followed it up so soon with such an inventive reimagining means a whole new generation of fans can fall for Déjà Vu’s charms. Chess says: “It isn’t why we’ve made our record, but there is a new generation finding old music, who go: ‘Woah, what’s this?’ Hopefully, we can shine a light on the original. We’ve done it because we knew we sing well enough together that we can do it justice.”

Although the band performed at the Americana Awards in 2019, when Graham Nash won a lifetime achievement prize, and worked with Lukas Nelson from Neil Young’s backing band The Chrome Hearts, they haven’t met any of CSN&Y. They hope fans of the original approve, as AJ reasons: “It’s a record we love, that we’ve done our own thing with, without carbon copying it.”

Tara acknowledges. “If someone covered Chris Stapleton’s Traveller, my first thought would be: ‘Why?’ But if a great vocal harmony group did something different with that album, I’d certainly want to listen to it.”

With an accompanying headline tour playing the album in full, including London Union Chapel on June 12, The Wandering Hearts can’t wait to now play these songs live. Tara vows: “It’s a record with so many different emotions, it’s going to be so powerful to play these songs live to people.”

Hearing these beautiful covers is one of the most affecting experiences music can offer. Whatever your views on the original record, it takes a special talent like The Wandering Hearts to make these familiar joys sound unique once more. We Have All Been Here Before? Not in such a magical way. Dive in and be transformed all over again.