John Hiatt, not a name a great amount of people know, he's always been in the shadows, but he now has a catalogue of over 20 albums to his credit, and his songs are recorded by the likes of Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, BB King, Joan Baez, Iggy Pop, Emmylou Harris, and Joe Cocker to name a few, i don't rate his early albums, and it's only with 'Stolen Moments' that he really takes off, there's a phase where he slips back into insignificance, but his last four albums are supposedly back on form, and i really need to get and listen to them, if i could suggest one album for the beginner, it would be 'Walk On', and then this offering here, his two best albums i've heard, this guy is a legend.
John Hiatt is American, he's now 60, younger than i thought, and still got a good amount of life left in him, he recorded this album 1993, the photography throughout is fantastic [by Mark Seliger], front and back showing Hiatt in a field, great lighting with the evening gloom setting in, the back cover photograph looks like he's having fun, or maybe laughing his head off about his lack of ironing!.
This was a nice musical experience, 'Perfectly Good Guitar' can be viewed as John Hiatt's Hard Rock album, there's certainly some loud stuff on some of these tracks, and there were two songs that really caught my ear, tracks 4 & 7, and here's a synopsis of both,
4 Buffalo River Home - I first listened to this album from a disc from the library, and this was the first song on the album that caught my ear, there's a degree of Country Rock here, i like the Hard Rock of it, it's got a great beat to it, the chorus is especially contagious, and Hiatt's gruff vocals are perfect, also he's a great wordsmith, the third verse starts 'Now there's only two things in life, but i forget what they are' ha!, only John could make up nonsensical lyrics like that, this will get you rocking.
7 Cross My Fingers - Gentle strumming of electric guitar as an intro, but then it just explodes into the most exciting life! [0:03+], the lead guitar [Michael Ward] just chugging away, and it's this hard guitar fuzz that excites as it comes back again and again, Hiatt almost shouts 'Cross my fingers' every time it comes around, but it's the verses that have a tremendous lyrical buzz, best lyric is the opening verse 'I slip into another gear, and i travel in another syncopation', after the bridge comes a tremendous short guitar solo of the opening fuzz [2:10-2:23], wow i just love that, the outro is just the same [3:16+], great guitar work, the best song on this listen.
John Hiatt is American, he's now 60, younger than i thought, and still got a good amount of life left in him, he recorded this album 1993, the photography throughout is fantastic [by Mark Seliger], front and back showing Hiatt in a field, great lighting with the evening gloom setting in, the back cover photograph looks like he's having fun, or maybe laughing his head off about his lack of ironing!.
This was a nice musical experience, 'Perfectly Good Guitar' can be viewed as John Hiatt's Hard Rock album, there's certainly some loud stuff on some of these tracks, and there were two songs that really caught my ear, tracks 4 & 7, and here's a synopsis of both,
4 Buffalo River Home - I first listened to this album from a disc from the library, and this was the first song on the album that caught my ear, there's a degree of Country Rock here, i like the Hard Rock of it, it's got a great beat to it, the chorus is especially contagious, and Hiatt's gruff vocals are perfect, also he's a great wordsmith, the third verse starts 'Now there's only two things in life, but i forget what they are' ha!, only John could make up nonsensical lyrics like that, this will get you rocking.
7 Cross My Fingers - Gentle strumming of electric guitar as an intro, but then it just explodes into the most exciting life! [0:03+], the lead guitar [Michael Ward] just chugging away, and it's this hard guitar fuzz that excites as it comes back again and again, Hiatt almost shouts 'Cross my fingers' every time it comes around, but it's the verses that have a tremendous lyrical buzz, best lyric is the opening verse 'I slip into another gear, and i travel in another syncopation', after the bridge comes a tremendous short guitar solo of the opening fuzz [2:10-2:23], wow i just love that, the outro is just the same [3:16+], great guitar work, the best song on this listen.
