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Heart vocalist Ann Wilson is playing back-to-back shows in Utah next week, at the Kenley Amphitheater in Layton on Monday night, then at the Sandy Amphitheater on Tuesday.

Not Heart the band. Just "Ann Wilson of Heart."

After an incident this past August in which Ann Wilson's husband, Dean Wetter, was arrested for assaulting the teenage sons of Nancy Wilson (Ann's sister and Heart's guitarist) and ultimately pleaded guilty to two nonfelony charges, Heart is on indefinite hiatus, and the sisters are doing their own thing.

"We have played in Utah a bunch, and people always receive Heart well there," Ann Wilson said in a phone interview with The Tribune. "I guess we'll just see in the moment how they respond to me without Nancy."

While the circumstances behind the split are obviously troublesome, Wilson has maintained that episode was also simply the most visible flashpoint in a relationship already fraught by the sisters' disagreements over the band's future.

As a result, going out on tour by herself has afforded her a certain level of creative freedom she said is simply not there in the confines of the band.

"Fundamentally, it's different in that we don't have the same expectations put on us. I can do basically whatever I want. There's not 40 years of Heart baggage there," Wilson said. "Nothing against Heart, but it just feels really good to stretch out and wander free for a while."

Her setlists, of course, feature a few Heart standards, such as "Barracuda" and "Crazy on You," but also are populated by some of her solo material and a heavy dose of covers, from bands such as The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley and the Black Crowes, among others.

She acknowledged it's a much different experience than a typical Heart concert.

"I don't think 'Anguish' or 'Fool No More' or 'Won't Get Fooled Again' or 'Don't Give Up' or 'Your Move' by Yes — none of those would work in a Heart show, just because people would be going, 'Where's "Dog & Butterfly"? Where's "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You"? Where's X, Y, Z?' You know?" she said. "Fans would get sort of disgruntled if Heart didn't play a meat-and-potatoes hits set. And that's that world. Right now, I'm existing in another world."

And in this other world, she added, she gets to call all the shots.

"I just made a super-wish list," Wilson said. "I said, 'What if you could do whatever you want? Whatever you want, with no critics in the room, no obstacles or anything — what would that be?' And I made a big, huge list and started going down."

Wilson is also making plans for her third solo EP, which she hopes to record and release this winter, after the tour is over. She said it'll be five tracks, with four originals and a cover song.

The new material, she added, is the product of much reflection and taking stock of her shortcomings.

"It's kind of a thematic album. I've been working a lot in my own life with ego, and how to exist outside of an ego shell. So these are songs that are all in the process of emerging into the light … the process of evolution into a more real person," Wilson said. "I think that people in power begin to believe their own hype. That's what I'm doing here; it's stepping out of that."

She's well aware that her new direction will not resonate with some listeners the way that Heart's classic material does. And the 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, who is regarded as one of the best rock singers ever, knows her résumé is already sufficiently stacked that she could get by without ever writing a thing again, if she wanted.

But the Seattle native maintains she still has too much left to offer to settle for limiting her career to the impact she's already had at the expense of the impact she may have yet.

"I don't really think of it in the past tense yet. I don't think of it as a legacy, I think of it as an ongoing, conscientious, creative thing," Wilson said. "Anything I devote my energy to, my voice, my breath to, has to be for real. So I guess that would be a legacy. I just hope people would look at our stuff and my stuff and say, 'Well, she was the real thing.' "

Twitter: @esotericwalden —

Ann Wilson of Heart

Show 1

When • Monday, 8 p.m.

Where • Kenley Amphitheater, 403 N. Wasatch Drive, Layton

Show 2

When • Tuesday, 8 p.m.

Where • Sandy Amphitheater, 1245 E. 9400 South

Tickets • $22-$45; Smith's Tix