Through one of his principal influences, guitarist Lafayette Thing Thomas, a teenaged Heartsman hooked up with Bay Area producer Bob Geddins. Heartsman played bass on Jimmy Wilson's 1953 rendition of Tin Pan Alley, handling guitar or piano at other Geddins-supervised dates. He cut his own two-part instrumental, the Honky Tonk-inspired Johnny's House Party, for Ray Dobard's Music City imprint and watched it become a national RB hit in 1957.
The early '60s brought a lot more session work -- Heartsman played on Tiny Powell's My Time After Awhile (soon covered by Buddy Guy) and Al King's remake of Lowell Fulson's Reconsider Baby. By then, Heartsman's imaginative twiddling of the volume knob with his finger to produce an eerie moan had become his guitaristic trademark.
Stints in show bands, jazzy cocktail lounge gigs, and a stand as soul singer Joe Simon's trusty organist came prior to the inauguration of Heartsman's edifying back-to-the-blues campaign. In 1991, Dick Shurman produced Heartsman's most satisfying set to date for Alligator, The Touch. He remained a versatile performer until is death in December of 1996. ~ Bill Dahl, Rovi