Fort Worth, Texas-based trio 3 of Hearts is made up of Blaire Stroud, Katie McNeill, and Deserea Wasdin. Their first joint performance took place at a funeral, after which McNeill’s mother, a Fed-Ex driver, passed a demo tape along to independent record promoter Peter Svendsen. When Svendsen asked his daughter to review a stack of unsolicited submissions, she selected the 3 of Hearts recording and gave it to him. Shortly thereafter the group received offers from four Nashville labels, among them RCA, the imprint to which they ultimately signed. Their self-titled debut album, produced by Nashville veteran Byron Gallimore, appeared in July 2001. The same year the members joined the Seventeen Magazine Prom Prep 2001 Tour, appearing at malls across the country to present prom and after-prom fashions while performing several tracks from the record. Gillette also enlisted the singers for a prominent product campaign, all while the young women were still barely out of high school. A reconfigured Three of Hearts lineup later issued the independently released album Breaking All the Rules in March 2005.
