John Hiatt review
Posted: July 2, 2005 4:58 pm
Relaxed performance distinctly American
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Margaret Quamme
FOR THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Some musicians rely on smoke and mirrors to wow an audience. Not John Hiatt.
Wearing a rumpled, oversize, pinstriped shirt, John Hiatt ambled onto a casually cluttered stage Thursday night at PromoWest Pavilion and proceeded to outplay and out-sing most of today’s musicians.
Hiatt’s money clearly goes where his heart is: Not into stage shows but into a lovingly maintained rack of guitars.
"I don’t know who they think they are / Smashing a perfectly good guitar," he wryly chastised more flamboyant rockers in one song, raising his eyebrows for emphasis.
During the unhurried show, which lasted until midnight, he trotted out one guitar after another and played his way through 30 years of his music.
Ironically, it may be to Hiatt’s advantage that he has never had a huge hit: The closest he has come to celebrity is with Bonnie Raitt’s cover of Thing Called Love, which Hiatt performed Thursday in a raucous, sardonic version. Because his fans aren’t salivating for older material, Hiatt can take them wherever he wants to go.
That meant exploring material from his new album, Master of Disaster. The newer songs are deeper, simpler and more elementally bluesy than some of his verbally playful and boisterous older songs.
Each offers a new character, caught between pleasure and pain, and each time Hiatt transformed himself into that person, whether it was the half-demented stalker of Find You at Last, the hard-bitten hero of Ain’t Ever Goin’ Back or the confused seeker of Love’s Not Where We Thought We Left It.
Not that Hiatt neglected older songs. He started the show with a prickly, rough-edged version of Your Dad Did, cut loose with a wild take on The Tiki Bar Is Open, slowed down for a solo performance of Have a Little Faith in Me, and broke free on Memphis in the Meantime.
Hiatt’s music isn’t easily categorized. It’s clearly American — you won’t hear anyone playing sitar in the background — but it seamlessly merges blues, country, folk and rock, drawing from all without restricting itself to any traditional form.
He doesn’t fear competition. Where some aging rockers claim the spotlight, surrounding themselves with competent but unremarkable musicians, Hiatt has chosen to travel with the up-and-coming North Mississippi Allstars, whose roots sound meshes nicely with his.
Young guitarist Luther Dickinson more than matches Hiatt’s guitar playing, and playful duels between the two were a highlight of the evening.
The Allstars opened the show with a bluesy acoustic set, in which Luther’s brother Cody proved to be as accomplished on guitar as on the drums he played during Hiatt’s performance, and bassist Chris Chew provided a cool contrast to the well-heated guitars.
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Margaret Quamme
FOR THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Some musicians rely on smoke and mirrors to wow an audience. Not John Hiatt.
Wearing a rumpled, oversize, pinstriped shirt, John Hiatt ambled onto a casually cluttered stage Thursday night at PromoWest Pavilion and proceeded to outplay and out-sing most of today’s musicians.
Hiatt’s money clearly goes where his heart is: Not into stage shows but into a lovingly maintained rack of guitars.
"I don’t know who they think they are / Smashing a perfectly good guitar," he wryly chastised more flamboyant rockers in one song, raising his eyebrows for emphasis.
During the unhurried show, which lasted until midnight, he trotted out one guitar after another and played his way through 30 years of his music.
Ironically, it may be to Hiatt’s advantage that he has never had a huge hit: The closest he has come to celebrity is with Bonnie Raitt’s cover of Thing Called Love, which Hiatt performed Thursday in a raucous, sardonic version. Because his fans aren’t salivating for older material, Hiatt can take them wherever he wants to go.
That meant exploring material from his new album, Master of Disaster. The newer songs are deeper, simpler and more elementally bluesy than some of his verbally playful and boisterous older songs.
Each offers a new character, caught between pleasure and pain, and each time Hiatt transformed himself into that person, whether it was the half-demented stalker of Find You at Last, the hard-bitten hero of Ain’t Ever Goin’ Back or the confused seeker of Love’s Not Where We Thought We Left It.
Not that Hiatt neglected older songs. He started the show with a prickly, rough-edged version of Your Dad Did, cut loose with a wild take on The Tiki Bar Is Open, slowed down for a solo performance of Have a Little Faith in Me, and broke free on Memphis in the Meantime.
Hiatt’s music isn’t easily categorized. It’s clearly American — you won’t hear anyone playing sitar in the background — but it seamlessly merges blues, country, folk and rock, drawing from all without restricting itself to any traditional form.
He doesn’t fear competition. Where some aging rockers claim the spotlight, surrounding themselves with competent but unremarkable musicians, Hiatt has chosen to travel with the up-and-coming North Mississippi Allstars, whose roots sound meshes nicely with his.
Young guitarist Luther Dickinson more than matches Hiatt’s guitar playing, and playful duels between the two were a highlight of the evening.
The Allstars opened the show with a bluesy acoustic set, in which Luther’s brother Cody proved to be as accomplished on guitar as on the drums he played during Hiatt’s performance, and bassist Chris Chew provided a cool contrast to the well-heated guitars.
