John Hiatt

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John Hiatt (born August 20, 1952 in Indianapolis, Indiana) is an American rock guitarist, pianist, singer, and songwriter. He has played a variety of musical styles on his albums, including New Wave, blues and country. Hiatt has been nominated for eleven Grammy Awards and has been awarded a variety of other distinctions in the music industry.

Hiatt was working as a songwriter for a record company in Nashville when his song "Sure As I'm Sitting Here" was covered by Three Dog Night. The song became a top forty hit, earning Hiatt a recording contract with Epic Records. Since then he has released eighteen studio albums and two live albums. His songs have been covered by a variety of notable artists in multiple genres, including Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Joan Baez, Paula Abdul, Jimmy Buffett, and Rosanne Cash.

Contents

[edit] Musical Career

[edit] Early career

John Hiatt started his musical career in Indianapolis, Indiana as a teenager. He played in a variety of local clubs, most notably the Hummingbird. Hiatt played with a variety of bands, one of which was The Four Fifths.

Hiatt moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he got a job as a songwriter for the Tree-Music Publishing Company. Hiatt, who was unable to read or write scores, had to record all 250 songs he wrote for the company. Hiatt wrote the song, Sure As I'm Sitting Here, which performed by Three Dog Night rose to number 16 on the Billboard chart.

Hiatt meanwhile began playing with a band, White Ducks, which recorded an album, In Season, in 1972. Hiatt performed with both the White Ducks, and solo in a variety of clubs around Nashville. Hiatt met Don Ellis of Epic Records in 1973, and received a record deal, releasing his first single We Make Spirt later that year. In 1974 Hiatt released Hangin' Around the Observatory, which was a critical success and a commercial failure. A year later Overcoats was released, and when it failed to sell, Epic dropped Hiatt. Hiatt would suffer a similar fate with his next two labels, both MCA Records and Geffen Records dropped him.

While working with Geffen, Hiatt received some praise however, he had been called "the American Elvis Costello" by some. Hiatt even recorded a duet with Costello, a cover of the Spinners' song, "Living A Little, Laughing A Little," which appeared on Warming Up to the Ice Age. Shortly after its release, Bob Dylan covered Hiatt's song, "The Usual" which had appeared on the soundtrack to the movie Hearts of Fire.

[edit] Success at Last

Hiatt finally came into success in 1987, when he released his first big hit, Bring the Family. For the album Hiatt had a backing band consisting of Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe, and Jim Keltner. One of the cuts from the album, "Have a Little Faith in Me" would be covered by a number of artists, including Joe Cocker, Jewel, and Mandy Moore. "Thank You Girl" was a moderate radio hit, but nothing that would garner Hiatt national attention.

Following Bring the Family, Hiatt would have varied success on his following albums, though he did have a string of 9 straight studio albums hit the Billboard 200. In 1989, Hiatt returned to the studio to record Slow Turning, which would be his first album to hit the upper half of the Billboard 200. It also featured his only successful single, the title track, which hit #8 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. Also in 1989, Jeff Healey covered Hiatt's song "Angel Eyes", and took it to the top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100.

[edit] Hiatt in the 1990s and Beyond

In 1992, Cooder, Keltner, and Lowe again backed up John Hiatt, but this time they gave themselves a band name, "Little Village", a reference to a Sonny Boy Williamson II project. Expectations for the Little Village album were high, but the album failed to even chart as high as Hiatt's last solo album, and the group disbanded after an equally unsuccessful tour.

In 1993, Hiatt recorded Perfectly Good Guitar with members of alternative rock groups School of Fish and Wire Train. It was Hiatt's highest peaking album at #47, but again high expectations would not be met. The next year, Hiatt released Hiatt Comes Alive at Budokan?, his first live album and his last album with A&M Records.

Hiatt's next few albums never gained any momentum on the charts, and he saw little change in his fanbase in the late 1990s, indicating a dedicated (but not growing) following. In 2000, Hiatt released his first independent album (on Vanguard Records), Crossing Muddy Waters, which saw a strong mixture of bluegrass music in his music. Later that year, he was named songwriter/artist of the year at the Nashville Music Awards. In 2001, Crossing Muddy Waters was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. A compilation of Hiatt's songs that have been covered was also released on Vanguard. A CD and DVD of John Hiatt's performance on Austin City Limits was released in 2005.

Hiatt's most recent album is Master of Disaster, released on June 21, 2005. The album was produced by Jim Dickinson, and Hiatt was backed up by notable studio bassist David Hood and several members of the jam band North Mississippi Allstars. The album achieved modest sales, become a top ten independent album, but eluded significant commercial success in the same manner that his previous albums did.

[edit] TV and Movie Appearances

[edit] Discography

[edit] Official Discography

[edit] Other

  1. Bonnie Raitt - Thing Called Love
  2. Willie Nelson - The Most Unoriginal Sin
  3. Rodney Crowell - She Loves The Jerk
  4. Rosanne Cash - The Way We Make A Broken Heart
  5. Linda Ronstadt - When We Ran
  6. B.B. King & Eric Clapton - Riding With The King
  7. Emmylou Harris - Icy Blue Heart
  8. Nick Lowe & His Cowboy Outfit - She Don't Love Nobody
  9. Freddy Fender - Across The Borderline
  10. Buddy Guy - Feels Like Rain
  11. Patty Griffin - Take It Down
  12. Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise - It'll Come To You
  13. Buddy & Julie Miller - Paper Thin
  14. Joe Cocker - Have a Little Faith

[edit] Appearances on Compilation Albums

  1. "Let it Ride"
  2. "Where Nobody Knows My Name"
  3. "Straight to the Heart of Love" (w/ E.G. Daily, Colin Hay, Don Henley, and Bonnie Raitt)
  4. "Just the Goin'"
  • "Take Time to Know Her", from Attack of the Killer B's, Geffen, 1983.

[edit] Singles

Year Title Chart positions Album
US Hot 100 US Modern Rock US Mainstream Rock UK
1987 "Thank You Girl" - - #27 - Bring The Family
1988 "Slow Turning" - #22 #8 - Slow Turning
1988 "Paper Thin" - - #18 - Slow Turning
1990 "Child of the Wild Blue Yonder" - #24 #17 - Stolen Moments
1992 "She Runs Hot" (w/ Little Village) - - #17 - Little Village
1992 "Solar Sex Panel" (w/ Little Village) - - #35 - Little Village
1993 "Perfectly Good Guitar" - - #16 - Perfectly Good Guitar
1993 "Something Wild" - - #31 - Perfectly Good Guitar

[edit] Trivia

  • Jef Mallett, who writes the comic strip Frazz is a fan of Hiatt, and has referenced the musician in several comic strips.
  • A few John Hiatt songs were found on George W. Bush's iPod in 2005 [1].

[edit] References

  1. ^ Power Play. The Guardian (April 13, 2005).

[edit] External links

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